Secrets Within the Keyhole
by Jirubee
Summary: A wayward boy, bedraggled by the weather, is taken in by an elderly couple. The story they told him will leave him setting out to find what they lost.  What he finds will change his life forever. M for violence, sexual
1. Hush

**Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, or affliated characters. All rights belong to Rumiko Takahashi and her subsidiaries. No copyright infringement intended. **

**All of my fanfiction is nonprofit and for fun.**

**Reviews and feedback are always warmly welcomed, though never expected.**

**Happy reading, my friends.**

**-Oh Jiru-**

**AN: This is the first time I've ever written anything quite like this. I hope its enjoyable. This story has stolen my attention and all of my energy. I've worked really hard, so I hope that it will be worth continuing.**

_Secrets Within the Keyhole._

Some doors were never made to be opened.

A wayward boy, bedraggled by the weather, is taken in by an elderly couple. The story they told him will leave him setting out to find what they lost. What he will change his life forever. M for violence, sexual situations, and adult material.

_Chapter One:_

_**Hush.**_

_Winter._

The pale hand of winter clutched the landscape with its frigid grip. It had yet to relent, sending beggars into the homes of strangers, or the arms of lovers that they had found. The snow was up to his waist, burying him within the arms of the slush blanket.

He had traveled for days. His stomach rumbled, his skin grayed and burned. There was nothing left in his pocket, save for some lint and a piece of gum. He had lost everything; _his home, the woman he loved, his beloved sea_.

Everything had been decimated by the recession. No one needed the small capsule boats with the handful of mean, dragging their souls to the churning waters for a catch. They had been replaced by refined, large networked ships and bregades.

His wife had died in an accident the previous year, leaving him in shambles.

_"Oh, that poor Ito boy!" _They had all said. He had eventually tired of hearing it. His house burned to the ground about three months ago, leaving him homeless.

Sure he had friends, aquaintances that had been more than helpful. His pride was just shackled to his heart, which was the only thing that he had left. When Kikyo had passed away, he had promised to keep his head high no matter the situation.

It was increasingly hard to be brave, be strong without her guilding him through his daily motions. If she had seen him now, she would have turned over in her grave, full of disappointment.

_Ito InuYasha_ _had become nothing._

His hair, which used to be short and shaggy, had grown and grayed prematurely. It hung about his spine, curling down the center of his back. It kept him warmer than his clothing, and he relished in the fact that he had chosen to leave it be.

He wasn't exactly sure where he was now, as he meandered through the thrush of snow. All that he _did _know, was that he was lost, starving, and in desperate need of sleep.

His lanky hands rubbed his dark eyes free of the creases that hung below them. His nose was nipped by the cold kisses of wind as he reached the mouth of a town.

His stomach churned with relief as he gripped to the icy trunk of a withered tree. It's frozen leaves crumbled into glassy shards as he slipped away. His shoes were damp, completely soaked through by the frothy precipitation.

The evening was approaching, darkening the sky to a violet cocoon for Nippon to sleep within. The clouds rolled like the waves that stirred the ocean that rested nearby. His heart fluttered with the scent of smoke, curling warmly in his nose.

A few koi kites, brittle from the weather, batted against the sides of houses and shops upon his approach. He tried to hurry, but found it hard to really move much faster that a tortoise.

Another wave of shivers washed over him as he sank within his thin coat. How he abhored the cold, he scowled. When his feet finally left the snow, it hit the wet, salted cement of a lonesome street that lead through the shanty town.

Lights hung low in the windows, the shadows of the occupants dancing like ghosts across the ground. He envied their warmth and looked back and forth for a place to just sit for a moment.

_If I could just thaw out_, he thought miserably.

The first gathering of homes were busy with the sounds of children squealing and crying. It pained him to know that he had never had a child. All he had ever wanted was a son to teach, to love...

All of that had been washed away like everything else.

He didn't pity himself, no. He merely believed that he was dealt a bad hand he had to overcome. Nothing was impossible in his mind. This was a mere setback to things that would come to fruition, he had decided long ago.

Idly, he ruminated with his hands searching for the denim of his pockets. He pulled out that piece of gum, exposing the warmth of his breath to the air as he slid it in.

His dark eyes shifted to an inn. It's finish had faded and the painting on the side was almost illegible. With a sigh, he scampered up the two steps and opened the door, being blasted in the face by the heat.

It clung to his brow like fire, scorching the coolness of his skin. He felt his body relax as he caught site of an elderly woman, hobbling with a cane. She came to rest behind a counter and placed her knobby hands upon it.

Said counter looked about as old as she did. The low illumination of lamp light and a dusty chandelier lit her small, creased eyes. "Well, it looks as though you're frozen to the bones."

InuYasha pressed a smile across his face at how raspy her voice was. "I've been out there all day, nearly froze to death." He chided, trying to make himself more alive.

"Awfully young to have all that gray hair, eh?" The woman said, licking a briary thumb to turn a page in her log-book.

InuYasha's face contorted with distaste as shuffled to the counter, resting his weary body against it. His arms tiredly laced across the edge, his head falling upon them.

The woman's name tag was crooked across her spotted apron. He winced at it, attempting to read the shaky kanji. "Well, _Ka-ede-san?_" He said wearily, nervous of the pronunciation. "I've been through a lot this past year."

Her thin, gangly brow arched. "I can tell. We don't get many people from out of town here. If you like you can pick out whatever room you'd like." She said, slowly sliding her book across to him.

The man's sleepy eyes looked at the prices and let out a sigh. It had been involuntary and he felt his pride shatter slightly. "I know this sounds bad, but I don't have a cent to my name. I just came in to warm up before I head out." He said softly.

Kaede-san shook her head, a few strands of her wiry hair spilling from her bun. "What's your name?" She asked abruptly, grabbing a pen from a cup.

His blinked at her and furrowed his brows. "I'm not askin' for a hand out or nothin'." InuYasha grumbled.

Kaede looked unamused as she tapped her pen. "What's your name?" She asked again, "I didn't ask you if it hurt your feelings."

InuYasha stood straight, rolling his eyes. "Ito InuYasha," He muttered beneath his breath.

"Well," She smacked, "I'm pleased to meet you, InuYasha-sama. You can follow me, if you'd like."

Inside, he felt relieved. He hadn't slept in real bed in weeks. The last time he had the luxury, he had been in Tokyo visiting his friend, Miroku. He and his wife were expecting, so InuYasha had chose to leave.

Being another burden was just too hard to bear.

Yet, as he brought his attention back to the staggering woman, he followed her around the counter to a small hallway. It was musty, darkly lit, and looked like it was nice in its prime. There was nothing wrong with it now, it had just seen far better days.

His mind was wandering from one end of his brain to another when Kaede's voice tore him from his reverie.

"Are you hungry, InuYasha?" She asked, pointing to a room on the right side of the small hallway. "This is yours, if you want it by the way." She said.

"Arigato," InuYasha said, pushing the door open. "I'm always hungry," He smirked, taking in the large bed.

"Well, go on in and get yourself cleaned up. The mister and I haven't had a chance to feed a soul since my grand-daughter stopped coming." The woman said, sadness and worry seizing her voice.

InuYasha furrowed his brows at her. "Did she get married, or somethin'?" He asked idly, slipping off his shoes to place them on a shoe-shelf. His toes felt like they were about to fall off, he scowled.

Kaede pointed to a photo on the bedroom wall, near a window. "That's her over there." Her hand quivered when she gestured to the portrait of a young woman smiling.

"She's pretty." InuYasha said, inspecting her gray eyes. She reminded him of his wife a little. "My wife looked a lot like her." He said absently.

Kaede perked her brows and nodded slightly. She knew from the sound of his voice that she had passed. "Well, this is my _Kagome_. We haven't seen her in nearly a year. Everyone says that she ran off with a rich boy from the next town, but I know better."

"You don't think she would have done that?" He asked biting his lip. Truth be told, he was pretty curious about what happened to the girl. His eyes fell on her photo again, and took in the light that glistened in her eyes. She was at the beach, posing in a yukata, dark hair billowing around her face.

Kaede swatted an arm at the air, "Never. That girl was too fiery to ever let a man get the better of her. I told her she would break a million hearts before she chose someone." A sigh erupted from her cracked lips and she turned her attention away from the room. "You get settled and Old Totosai will come fetch you."

InuYasha let himself smile in earnest. "I, uh, appreciate this a lot, Kaede-san."

A calloused hand patted him on the arm, "Go shower up, there's some hakama and haori in that closet. Hope you don't mind dressing like us old folks. Times have changed too much." She mused.

As she scooted away, she pulled the rusting and closed the door. Her heart ached as she thought of the girl. She hoped everyday that she would return. Ume, Kagome's mother had died years before, leaving Kaede and Old Totosai her guardians.

She had been every bit their daughter as Ume had been. Taking care of that Ito boy made the hole in her heart fill partially.

In the room, InuYasha violently stripped his soaked clothing. His bare skin felt clammy as the heat hugged to his skin. Whatever source had granted him such good luck, he wanted to thank them. He had craved for a bath, clean clothes, this warmth that enveloped him.

His hands shucked his dirty clothes into a pile in the corner of the room. He looked down at how thin he had become and patted his stomach softly. "God damn, I'm just fuckin' bones." He rasped to himself, staggering on cold feet to the bathroom.

"No wonder she wanted to feed me." He scoffed, slightly.

The cool white tile soothed his feet as he immediatedly turned on the warm water. The handle creaked and spat out a murky, brown sludge before running clear. A set of towels hung across the small sink beside him.

A nozzle that connected to the shower-head was wrapped around the faucet as he stepped into the water. He audibly moaned as he sank his tired body into the small sea he created. The tub was tiny, forcing him to bend his knees crookedly.

For a moment, he let the water wash away the aches and pains that had crawled across him. He didn't remember the last time he had taken a proper bath. He washed up in the rivers and scrubbed his clothes, but _this_ was a gift.

Steam kissed the mirror, dampening the floor and the walls. He took his time basking his head in the hot water that shot out from the nozzle in his hand. The soap peeled away the dirt, cleansing each pore. His hair felt clean for the first time in what felt like a year.

When the water began to cool, he finally relented to getting out and drying himself. Upon entering his quaint room, he found a closet next to a television on the dresser.

He tossed his damp towel on the quilt and stood bare as his hands parted the wardrobe. He dressed himself in a white haori and a pair of dark hakama. They probably had belonged to that Old Totosai guy.

He pulled on a pair of tabi for good measure. His chaffed feet desperately needed the extra protection. The reflection he saw in the mirror made him feel almost proud. He looked like he had been taken care of like he should have been.

A knock thwapped at the door, tearing him from the mirror. Before he opened the door, he looked at the photo of Kagome and mused about her.

_Wonder what happened to her_, he thought as he pulled the door open to see a scraggly, tall man. His back had the hint of a hunch. "Totosai-san?" InuYasha asked, seeing the man place his hands behind his back.

He was so thin he looked like a stick. A stick with loose skin hanging daintly from his elbows. "So, my wife tells me that you were hungry?" He smiled almost toothlessly. His voice was hoarse and throaty.

InuYasha nodded, walking to the end of the hall. "Very." He confirmed, turning behind the man to find a large, plain room. The walls had a few knick-knacks and the table was Western. It wasn't much of a surprise as their age made it difficult to move as they use to.

"Well, sit yourself down. Mama is bringing over the pot." Totosai laughed, patting the man on the back weakly. His effort was much stronger than his weightless hands.

InuYasha complied and took a seat that faced a small, yellow kitchen. It reminded him of his mother's house in the way it was constructed. He sank into the rickety wooden chair, placing his hands oddly in his lap.

Kaede hunched and shuffled to the table with a hot-plate and a pot of rice. Totosai brought the bowls and the wares, taking a seat ajacent to InuYasha.

The boy's stomach was churning with a need to be filled. He didn't care if it was rude or not, he couldn't help it. All he wanted was to devour every last morsel that hit the table. Kaede eyed him as he fixated on the offerings she had given him.

Rabbit stew, rice, charred fish, and a adzuki bun laid out before him and he absorbed the smell in awe. It had been four days since he had really eaten anything. When the old woman sat down in front of her guest, she sighed in relief.

"These old bones can barely keep themselves together!" She exclaimed with a hum. Her husband chewed at his lip, waiting for the boy to dig in and help himself.

"What are you waiting for, son?" Totosai quipped, handing the boy the plastic rice spoon. "Eat as much as you want. The missus and I want you to eat." He said, almost shooing InuYasha.

The man blinked and parted his mouth, trying to find a word that would justify this plentiful meal. When he couldn't find any, he smiled wide and happily helped himself. When he filled his bowls, he filled theirs.

Most of the meal was silent, save for InuYasha's inhalation of food. The slurping and the gasping for air amused the old couple.

"Now," The room was melancholy as Totosai sighed. "The last time I saw someone eat like that, it was when Kagome had thought she could make it on her own. She'd gone on a camping trip with that girl from the fishery, remember Mama?"

Kaede fell quiet for a moment before inspecting InuYasha's curious face. "There are a few similarities between the two." She said, aged eyes falling on the old table. "I think she'd like this one."

A flush hit InuYasha's cheeks and he thought for a while about the girl. He wasn't sure if it was because she resembled his wife that he had taken a fancy to hearing about her, or not. Either way, he decided, he was curious to know more about her.

Totosai grabbed his wife's hand and placed a ginger kiss atop the nooks and crannies of veins. "She was something. I just want to know what happened to her."

"She'll turn up, Papa." Kaede said, shaking off the memory of the last time they saw her. "How long are you staying with us, InuYasha?"

InuYasha stuttered for a moment before sitting his chopsticks down. He nervously ran a hand through his long hair and shrugged. "I was planning on leaving in the morning. I gotta make my own way, you know? I sure appreciate all this, though."

Totosai and Kaede shared a solemn look before the woman reached over and smacked him with the rice spoon. "Oi, you aren't going anywhere in this weather. You'll freeze to death."

"I've survived much worse," InuYasha assured her, shaking the pain from his hand.

It wasn't good enough of an answer for her and she pressed her mouth in a straight line.

"I don't know what you think you've gone through, but you're going to stay with us." She said, looking happily at her husband. He seemed to be content with the decision and nodded.

"I can finally have a hand getting things done around here." He said, "You work, you have a place to stay."

Kaede shook her head, assuring that either way, he would have a roof over his head.

InuYasha just sat dumbfounded by this elderly couple. He'd never seen any kindness that resembled theirs. If anything, he would try to repay them by finding out what happened to Kagome.

He didn't know how long it would take, but it seemed like it was the least that he could do. He wasn't worth much at the time being, but he had an able body.

That night was one of the best he had had in a long time. He may not have been deserving, but he sure as hell would prove himself to be.


	2. Rebuilt

**Happy reading, my friends.**

**-Oh Jiru-**

**AN: Despite the few typos, I feel like the first chapter turned out like I wanted it. Thank you to ninjamidori for your excitement! **

**And to answer some questions; Yes, they are all humans in this story. I chose this because I felt that it was more tangible to think of them as everyday people going through these struggles. **

**I appreciate all of the enthusiasm thus far. I cherish your feedback so much!**

**To my readers and reviewers! **

**A side note, I lost my great grandfather in early 2010 and Totosai is special to me, because he is familiar to me. Sometimes, you have to throw in people you've known to have something feel whole.**

_Secrets Within the Keyhole._

Some doors were never made to be opened.

A wayward boy, bedraggled by the weather, is taken in by an elderly couple. The story they told him will leave him setting out to find what they lost. What he will change his life forever. M for violence, sexual situations, and adult material.

_Chapter Two:_

_**Rebuilt.**_

Time had been much friendlier since that first night. All of the strange surroundings had faded somewhat, leaving behind the feeling of structure and home.

It was a new smothering feeling that InuYasha basked in, and still hadn't understood. The moment he laid hs head down on _his _pillow, in _his_ new bed, he felt a serenity fill him to the brim.

It had swiftly lulled him to an oblivious state of being as his hands curled around the edges of his blankets.

He was like a lost child. He had found his Neverland and happily rested.

Kaede had peeked in the door to find him snoring, drooling upon the pillows. A smile had crept upon her mouth, "Oh, what an innocent face." She murmured, shaking her head in content. Her good deads seemed to please the very bottom of her heart.

Satisfaction beseiged the old woman, as she hummed a sailor's tune on her way to bed. If Kagome returned, her home would have been in its glory days. The laughter and happiness, which had been exchanged for such blind sorrow, would be restored and the last of her days could be spent in peace.

The floor creaked beneath her feet as she flipped off the last light in the hall, leaving the building hanging in darkness.

_Two weeks had passed since that first night. It felt like a blink of an eye. _

When the new morning pierced the white draperies hanging along the windows, it fell on InuYasha, rousing him from his comfortable sleep. Parting his dark eyes, he rubbed away the sleep that daunted the edges of his lashes.

As he did every morning, he laid still, listening to the low murmurs from his television. He figured out on the first night that he couldn't sleep without hearing noise. It had been a comfort he had picked up sleeping on the trains.

The screeching wheels burned against the tracks, jerking and clacking amongst the talking, leaving him dull and tired. The television had done the same thing, lulling him into a deep slumber.

Save, this time, he could sleep as long as he wanted. The bed he took as his own was soft, welcoming like an embrace. He cuddled with a pillow that he placed between his knees, as he looked towards a small, round clock on his nightstand.

Totosai had almost gotten the backside of the inn rebuilt with his help. It wasn't in too terrible of shape, but it was too difficult for the man to accomplish on his own.

It was a little before 9 A.M. when he realized he had slept in a little later than he had anticipated, seeing as how the old man rose before the dawn. InuYasha figured it was in their biological clock to be up before the sun and in bed before the moon.

Kaede always woke him up as she shuffled about, clanking her cane across the wooden floor. He would never complain as they had taken him in so kindly. One thing that the man had learned to do, was appreciate the smiling woman looking over him.

It was like he had fallen in love with an image of Kagome. She was something special to him. Perhaps, had she been here, things would have been different. However, for the time being, he just enjoyed waking up to the photograph.

As he grumbled, fair near rolling off the bed, he plastered his wobbly feet upon the ground. His hands grabbed to the nightstand, skidding it loudly across the floor. It was seldom that he felt so clumsy, but he admitted that he had the fault.

Groggily, InuYasha zipped across his new room to the wardrobe. He pulled out a new shirt Kaede had bought for him and a pair of jeans. That old couple sure took care of him. Part of him was still in shock when he woke up there.

It almost felt like he was a kid again, living with his parents. Every morning, he was grateful to have food and a roof protecting him from the inclement weather brewing outside.

These feelings were so new that he didn't quite know how to grasp them. Yes, they were very real, tangible and the like. It was just so_ foreign _after he had lost his way of life.

Most of the time he kept to himself, talking to the picture in his room, or walking around the town. This particular morning, Totosai needed him to run errands and buy more supplies for the unfinished work on the side of the inn.

Kaede gave him her son-in-law's old winter coat. He'd worn it proudly after the war when he could make a purchase. He had been in his late teens, whereas InuYasha's late twenties loomed over him.

Pulling the red coat over his body, he buttoned it to the collar and headed out of his sanctuary.

Kaede was waiting for him at the table with an omelet and some rice. She was dressed in her nicest kimono, which was littered with chrysanthemums and other pale flowers. She'd worn it on each Sunday since he had been there.

InuYasha's cheeks raised, "Morning Kaede-baba." He teased, taking a seat next to her.

"I heard you stumbling about so I decided to go ahead and make you something to eat." Kaede said, grabbing a brush she left on the counter. Her old bones didn't bother resting back in her seat. Instead, she adjusted herself, standing behind the boy.

Her old hands gently grabbed his gray hair and brushed out the kinks his pillow had caused. He knew it was something she had always done for Kagome, and let her do it to appease her weary soul.

And, secretly, he loved having her do it. The day he mentioned cleaning up his appearance, Kaede had gotten a little huffy over his hair, saying how well the length suited him.

"Where's Totosai, Baba?" He garbled, stuffing his mouth full of food, bringing his attention back to the present.

Kaede tilted her head and inhaled as deeply as her creaking lungs would allow. She smacked her lips accidentally and looked out the window, seeing the sun peer lazily through the large window.

InuYasha turned his head, looking up at her when he saw tears filling in her eyes. It looked strange to him. The loose, wrinkled creases seemed to catch the moisture in pools.

"Are you alright, Kaede?" The man's brows furrowed as he stood up. His voice was curious, perturbed by the frality that washed over the nuturing woman.

Kaede attempted to compose herself and pressed a smile upon her face. The facade was hollow, just as a hole in a tree trunk. "It's nothing, my dear. Sit down at eat your breakfast before it gets cold. I didn't make it for the alley cat."

Her hands flung in front of her as she shooed him back to his seat. He eyed her for a moment, concern written all over his face. "If I eat will you tell me what's wrong?"

Kaede turned from the refrigerator to acknowledge him. Her rigid skin rubbed the tears from her sagging cheeks and running nose. The bottom lip quivering on her face, she gasped and pulled a hankerchief from her sleeve. "Kagome's been gone a year today."

Her voice was raw, full of an unexplicable amount of emotion.

"Papa went out to the shop she worked at to visit." She said shakily.

InuYasha's heart pulled. His hands coiled on either side of his plate. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but what happened to her?" He said in nothing more than a whisper.

Kaede looked over his dejected face and motioned for him to come in the kitchen. "Come on, son, come sit with me while I clean up this mess."

InuYasha did as he was told. His near empty plate and wares were placed in the sink along with the cooking pans. He naturally rolled up his sleeves and turned on the water. Kaede pulled up her back-sided stool and slowly plopped down.

Together, they washed and dried the dishes in silence before the woman sighed. It was as if she was mustering the strength to bring up those foul memories from where they were stored.

"It makes it harder because January 7th, _today_, is her birthday." Kaede said, scrubbing the pan with a Brillo pad. "She's just turning twenty-two."

InuYasha chewed at his lip while his thoughts ran in sporactic circles. He hunched over upon his elbows, focusing his ears on the words that started to sink in.

"Kagome used to work at the bakery. She made cakes, pies, what have you. Her mother had worked there for years, so she took a liking to the smell of sweets and the happy children, instantly." Kaede said, picking at a stuck on piece of egg.

"Of course she helped around here, helping us old folks do things we couldn't do ourselves, like go into the attic, hang the decorations, move furniture." She continued, "She was a sweetheart if there ever had been one. All the men around town couldn't wait until she was old enough to marry."

A remorseful grin caught her as her gaze fell onto InuYasha. He looked enthralled, as if it was the most interesting story that he had ever heard. To him, hearing about Kagome, was like hearing a fairytale for the first time. It was heartbreaking, lavished with excitement and wonder.

"If I had been around, I'd probably have waited for her, too." He chided delicately, trying not to upset the woman anymore than she already was.

"You see, " Her tongue wet her lips, as she handed InuYasha the pan to dry. "There was one man that came through here, oh, every two or three months, I'd say..." She babbled, "And, he had a peculiar interest in Kagome. He followed her around, threw his affections at her, and then when she had declined, he left. His pride was probably hurt."

The pan clanked against the counter as InuYasha took another piece from the woman. "You think that he had something to do with her going missing?" He asked gruffly.

Kaede scowled, her thinning brows knit together. "If he didn't he certainly knows what happened to her. I haven't seen him since, so it's certainly questionable. The authorities told us that since Kagome was an adult, there was nothing they could do." She spat, her throat wobbled, suppressing the urge to cry out.

InuYasha sat wiped his hands and knelt down to embrace the woman. Her hands felt lke brail on his wrist, clinging to him with everything she had. Her nose buried in his arm, soothing herself from the dire scenarios her mind displayed.

His warmth surrounded her for a while longer, her hands patting his shoulder in gratitude. "Well, she sniveled, wiping her nose. "You go on and go buy the supplies. The money and list is on the counter."

InuYasha felt guilt about leaving her alone, but she probably wanted it. Peeling the damp paper from the counter, he shoved it in his pocket and headed towards a sliding door that lead to the porch. It was attached to the kitchen and viewed the roaring sea nearby.

Akita in winter was blinding.

As he was sliding the door shut, Kaede tapped the glass with her cane. Her feeble hands shoved extra Yen in his hands.

Looking down, he blinked and furrowed his brows. "What's this for?"

"Go buy yourself something nice." Kaede said, shutting the door on him before he had time to argue. That boy was something else, she thought as she shook off a shiver.

InuYasha just looked down at his cold hands at the money and shook his head. "She just has to make me feel bad." He scowled, folding it and inserting it with the rest of the money.

The snow was packed to his shins as he trudged through the slush. The street was slick, broken from the artic breeze that rolled in from the ocean. Across the way, he saw some children playing.

One of them, a little auburn headed boy, was crying. The other children took their treats, obviously from their parents, and ate them in front of him. His eyes were full of upset as he tried to take back the small onigiri that was stolen by an older boy.

Their rosy faces were alive with laughter as they watched the runt struggle. He couldn't reach the length of their arms and fell face first into a lump of snow. When he sat back up, his nose was bleeding, brite and warm againt the air.

InuYasha let out a hot breath and stumbled over towards the ruckus. He wasn't a saint or a savior, but he knew what it was like to be hungry. He'd seen the little boy a few times when he had been out with his mother, and felt badly for him.

His clothes weren't as nice, and his hair was a bit unruly.

When InuYasha stepped a little close to the shaded side of the fishing-shop, where they crowded, he arched his brows. "S'there a problem?" He asked.

The older children shook their heads and pointed at the boy bawling his eyes out. "S'not our fault his Mama ain't around today. He's a baby." The dark headed boy scoffed, trying his best to impress his peers.

InuYasha scratched at his hairline and bent down to the little boy, "You okay, kid?" He asked, putting gently pressure on his round cheek. His skin was hot beneath his fingers, as he wiped away the blood with his coat sleeve.

The boy pouted, trying to calm himself down. After a few gasps, his breathing returned to normal and he looked up at him with adoration. "I'm, I'm fine. I just wanted my snack. My Mama made it special for me."

"That so?" InuYasha smirked, ruffling the kid's messy hair. "Where's your hat, aren't you cold?"

The boy looked up at him and he shook his head. "We don't have the money to buy anything right now. My daddy's at sea and Mama is gonna give me a sister." His tiny teeth were crooked in a wide smile.

The other children has since left, snickering at the five year old. The man that stood above him, extended a hand, helping him up before putting them back in his pockets. "I used to be a fisherman, myself." InuYasha said, trying to relate.

"I want to be, Mama told me no, though. She wants me to go to school. I can't in winter, it's too cold to make it there." He shrugged his small shoulders and shivered.

"Where is your Mama, now?" InuYasha asked, noticing the coldness that nipped at his cheeks and nose. It was damp and clung to him. It was like that day that he had walked all those miles and ended up here.

It was just unsettling.

After a moment, the boy started picking at the dried blood beneath his nose. "She's at the hospital in the next town." He said idly, a hint of sadness in his minute voice.

That had done it for InuYasha. He was a stray that got taken in, and as much as he hated to admit it, the kid was kind of cute. He couldn't let him go without, or let the infant stay alone.

With a huff, InuYasha grabbed the kids hand. "Don't worry, I'm not going to kidnap you or nothin'. You want somethin' to eat?"

The boy's large eyes shimmered with the smile that reached them. "You'd do that for me?" The boy squealed with delight. No one had ever been so kind to him.

His hand latched to his rescuer's and walked with him down the muddy side of the street. The rocks crushed beneath his tiny feet, the curls of his hair whipping around his face.

"What's your name?" The boy asked, "Do you live with Baba?" He fired, skipping against the salty air.

InuYasha tensed, trying to keep his attention on the still unfamiliar town. "InuYasha, and yes, I do." He said, as they reached a rugged looking restuarant. There was a plastic food display in the dusty window. Scraping his finger through the film of ice, he saw what they offered.

"My name's Shippo." The boy's hands rubbed the snot leaking from his nose to the side. He waited patiently for the man to open the door, warm air instantly taking them over.

"Well, at least I'm not the only one with an animal's name." InuYasha laughed. Hs mother and father had been precarious with their choice of names.

As a woman behind a steel counter smiled at them, Shippo scampered to the menu board and attempted to read it. He was proud that he could understand the numbers and the words that labeled his favorite food. "Mama said she named me it, because I wiggled so much."

InuYasha knelt down, arms resting on his knees. He read off the things to the boy until he made up his mind. After ordering, he hunkered down with a soda and a daifuku jelly.

Shippo shoved his noodles in his mouth and drank down the tea InuYasha had ordered him. The boy had finally settled down and it seemed calm, tiring to look around the busy diner. The walls were covered in photos, fishing nets and rods.

His heavy head rested in his hand, as he propped himself up. Shippo raised his eyes from his bowl to see his down-trodden expression. "What's wrong with you, mister?"

InuYasha shook his head, "Just got to get going and get my things done." He said with a rasp. Hs throat was sore from the cold that fair near killed him.

"Oh?" Shippo muttered, finding his appetite to be lost. Shoving the tray across the plastic and cork table, he slumped in his seat. "Thank you. I guess I'll go home." His head was riddled with more loneliness than his body.

InuYasha rolled his eyes, his sympathy was starting to wear a bit thin. He didn't like beating around the bush, to say the very least. Before he opened his mouth to speak, his dark eyes caught a photo of a familiar face.

Shippo turned his head to see what the man was looking at and span around on his knees. His finger pointed at the picture, "That's Kagome. She told me she'd marry me one day." He said jovial and proud. "I'm waiting for her."

If Shippo had known that Kagome watched over him in his sleep, he would have been jealous, heartbroken. It was kind of silly, he admitted, to be drawn to a still image of the girl. She had no voice, no body to hold, _nothing_.

Still, InuYasha was compelled to pushed himself up, "Aren't you a little young?" He inquired with a scoff, meandering to the counter. The woman pressed her greasy hands on her apron and flung her hair from her eyes.

"Need anythin' else?" She asked lightly, her eyes heavy with happiness.

InuYasha gestured to the photo, "You know anything about that girl in the picture? The one with gray eyes?"

The woman squinted. When she picked out the one, she slapped her hand on the counter-top. "I haven't seen her in a long time. She used to live with the lady that owns the inn."

"So I've heard," InuYasha said idly, a sigh escaping him. "Well, thank you."

He motioned for Shippo to come along and the boy obeyed. As soon as his hands hit the door, the open gasped, waving a hand.

"You should ask the old couple." She said, not realizing that he was staying with them. He'd heard all their stories, he just wanted to know more than everyone could give him.

Heading back outside, the pair linked hands. InuYasha guided the trusting boy to the hardware store, grabbing up the things on the crumpled list. The bag was small, filled with nails, paint, a new hammer, and some last minute chewing gum.

Shippo got excited when he saw the sweet shop with the cherries and cakes decorating the windows. InuYasha peeked in and saw Old Totosai sitting behind the counter with a young man, probably around twenty-three or four.

His hair was neat, pinned back with gel. He looked like he was born and raised in the small town, due to the innocence on his face. Mustering up the energy, the man jingled the bell upon his entry, receiving a warm hello from his surrogate father.

"There's my boy." Totosai said, thick and proud. "Seems you found a handful on your way." He said, spying Shippo's diminutive form.

"Oi, some of the kids were picking on the guy." InuYasha shrugged his shoulders, watching the man behind the counter dip down at grab a strawberry pastry.

"Oh, well, you know how boys can be." Totosai chided, watching Hojo hand Shippo the cake. "Anyway, Hojo, this is InuYasha. InuYasha, Hojo." He gestured, his bony hands shaking.

InuYasha nodded, watching the man's face beam with kindness. He didn't know what it was about all the people in this part of the country, but they sure seemed overtly nice. Maybe that's what caused all the troubles.

No one seemed sad that they lived in, what appeared to be, a ghost town. The rest of Akita was flush, larger, and new. This shanty was on the outskirts, beaten by the untimely age of techonology.

Totosai inspected the bag in InuYasha's hand. "Well, we need to get to work before the day is gone. I don't want to sleep with a draft tonight. My arthritis is acting up."

Hojo helped the man up from his chair, grabbing his cane from the glass topped counter. "I hope that you're grand-daughter is found, Totosai-san."

"Don't we all?" The eldery man said apathetically.

InuYasha frowned. All he could really think about was finding out the whole story. Just something that would ease these peoples pains. In the event that she had passed away, they would still need to know.

Grieving over the unknown is more painful than grieving over a fact. Eventually, the seasons would change, the world would renew, and these aching souls may be able to find an answer.

All InuYasha knew was that he was a lucky fool. His life was being rebuilt by the hands of those around him. Whether or not it was the life that he had truly expected, he opened his arms and welcomed it, as the trials of the day had set in.

Upon leaving the bakery, Shippo tagged along, coming home with the older men. He was too taken by Kaede and her playful behavior to care about what anyone else was doing.

He stayed in the warm house while InuYasha broke his back outside in the cold. Totosai looked like a fatter version of himself beneath his layers. They'd complained, grumbled, laughed...

The crazy old man was dear to him.

They had just about finished up with the stain on the wooden planks when Totosai collapsed beside InuYasha. His heart pounded in his chest, panic striking him like lightning.

Instantaneously, he cried for Kaede. Shippo had flown out the door in front of her as she staggered down the steps. She fell, her skin flapping with her movements.

InuYasha ran inside, realizing they had no phone. His hands flew around him and he paced for a moment before he darted back outside. He looked around and rushed towards the building across the street, pounding on the door.

It was someone's home, but it wasn't like he cared.

When the door opened, revealing a short hared woman, he swallowed hard. "What do you want?" She hissed, smoking a cigarette.

"I-I need a phone, _now!_" The man yelled, his eyes livid that she stood in his way.

She rolled her eyes and reached to a cordless phone near the door. He finally found the _one_ person in this town that wasn't cordial and it had to be his neighbor.

Dialing out, he pleaded for the emergency services to come. When they did, Totosai was carried away to the same hospital Shippo's mother was at. Kaede went with the ambulance leaving the two distraught boys behind.

InuYasha let out a sigh and plastered his head in his hands. His palms stretching out the skin on his face. Shippo cried and sat in the man's lap.

Today was the day that things were supposed to be rebuilt, not deconstructed.

Biting his nails, the urgency that crawled through his body guided him to his feet. He pushed himself back inside the house, grabbing a scarf and a hat for Shippo.

The little boy looked up to him with tears still flooding his face. "Where are you going?" He whined, feeling InuYasha's hands pull the tobaggon over his ears, wrapping the blue scarf around his neck.

"_We_ are going to see your mother." InuYasha said hastily, his body flooding with adrenaline as he grabbed Shippo by the hand. Night would fall soon and he didn't want the monstrous night to eat them alive.

**AN; This chapter was hard to write. I hope you liked it. The next chapter is going to fill everything in. **


	3. Smoke

_**AN; Thank you once again for the reviews and all of the reads! **_

_**I'm extremely proud of this story and I hope that everyone who has supported it thus far, continues to enjoy it.**_

_**There are a few explanations here, and a few little surprises.**_

_**The first draft was accidentally deleted, so the story is basically telling itself the way it wants to be told. **_

_**And as always, to my lovely readers and reviewers.**_

_**Your feedback is always appreciated and encouraging, though never expected.**_

_**-Oh Jiru-**_

_Chapter Three:_

_**Smoke.**_

_**She**__ was standing there, her eyes bright and filled with delight. She never asked for anything more than a pair of shoes for her birthday, or a special dinner._

_Her hands took the package from him, shaking with excitment. The neat wrapping on the box was destroyed in a matter of seconds, leaving behind the remains on the floor. _

_A smile as wide as a fox crossed her mouth and she pulled out a brand new camera. She bet that Hojo had told him she was captivated by it. He was the only person she'd told, and her heart swelled at the sight of her gift._

_Her birthdays were normally quiet, peaceful. This one was more special than she could imagine. They had taken her to Kyoto to a winter festival, and bought her a few charms for a bracelet she liked to wear._

_Her camera was just icing on the cake. Instantly, the girl's soft voice erupted, and her arms flung around his neck. He smiled at her and pointed to the beach that rested outside._

_He suggested, since it had been unseasonably warm, to go and have her picture taken by the bay. _

_That was the last time he saw her. She was dressing herself and ran out the door, her hair dancing behind her. _

_They waited for what seemed like hours for her to return. He eventually went to look for the girl. She never left without saying goodbye, or letting them know where she was going. _

_That girl had always been a rarity, and a good one._

_His old body shuffled against the sand, as the evening approached. It was getting cooler with a cold front that was passing through, taking away the muggy afternoon._

_A few children still lingered, playing fetch with a ragged old dog. _

_When he was about to give up, he caught sight of an auburn headed boy playing with a camera strap. He looked down at him and the boy aptly handed the object over._

_"Where did you find this?" He asked, knitting his brows together._

_The boy replied, "A man handed it to me before he left."_

_His aged heart was rattling. He clutched the strap to his chest and looked towards the town._

_"Did you see a girl with gray eyes?" He asked in haste._

_"Yes." The boy said, "She promised to marry me today. The man didn't seem too happy and he told her to leave me alone."_

_The man's face felt heavy as he chewed at his mouth.  
>"Was anything wrong?"<em>

_The boy shook his head lightly and sighed, "She didn't act like she liked him. He took her by the hand and left. I don't know where they went."_

_"Kagome." The man breathed, feeling his bones crack beneath the pressure. His eyes stared at the sea, burying his head in his hands. _

_"He wasn't from around here." The boy said, pushing himself to his feet. "He always talked to my Mama."_

_In an instant, the man that he was speaking of was clear in his mind. He didn't know his name, or origin. All he knew was that he was wealthy and had cut above his lip._

_It had made his stomach sick as he recoiled. The man's face was fresh in his memory. He was tall, rugged like a woodsman. That Hojo boy had mentioned him before. Kagome had never had a mean bone in her body, giving each soul the benefit of a doubt._

_When the boy was about to leave, he looked up at the old, withering man and handed him the camera which rested beside his feet. "She dropped this."_

_A part of him died as he took the girl's gift from those tiny hands. He asked the boy a million questions, but nothing was satisfactory._

_The authorities brushed it off as a girl in love. There was nothing that could be done for an adult who just up and left. This was a small town, with big ears and mouthes, it was just astounding that only this child had seen anything._

_She had become smoke on the wind within the course of an afternoon._

_They had taken the photos to be developed the next morning, only receiving the few that had been taken. They placed one in her old room._

_It was just as she had always been. She was a part of a world that was too big for her, but she brought the sun wherever she went._

_It had never occured to him that there were more photos in the package other than that one._

_There were more, stuffed in the package of blank film and negatives._

_**The camera...**_

A jolt arrested the old man as he thrust himself up from his bed. The infirmary was silent save for his gasping breath. Kaede's hand clenched to him as he reawoke from his slumber.

Her hands quivered like the rest of her. She inspected her husbands flush face, rubbing away the creasing that ran along his cheeks. Oxygen tubes ran through his nose, and his mouth begged for more.

He'd suffered a stroke and was being tended to gently. The cramped hospital was farily empty that night. Privacy was still nothing more than a paper-thin curtain, instead of a room to separate the patients.

Kaede was wrapped in a blanket, resting her head on the side of her beloved's bed. He wanted to speak, but his throat was dry and void of his voice. "Papa, why don't you go back to sleep?" She suggested, soothing his nerves with the stroking of her fingers on his.

The man closed his eyes tightly, choking back a sob. He felt ignorant, stupid that neither of them had ever thought to explore what laid within the roll of film. They had assumed that there was nothing more than blanks lining the roll.

Finally, he breathed out a weak "No." And leaned his head to the side of his pillow. His free hand, connected I.V. tubes, gripped to the plastic hand on his bed. When he shifted, Kaede sat up right and manuevered her chair to his head.

The soft incandescene that bled through the thin curtains, illuminated his face enough where she could see. "What's wrong, my love?" She asked quietly, raspy.

The man licked his lips, tasting the film of medicine clinging to his tongue. "The camera." He said in a whisper. "Get the camera for me."

Kaede furrowed her brows and shook her head. "Kagome's camera? Why on earth do you need that?" She said, hurt that the subject had even crossed his mind. That was tucked away in the bottom of the wardrobe, wrapped up and hidden.

She'd gone as far as putting a sutra on the box to ward away evil. That contraption had brought them nothing but misery. She never wanted to see that thing again.

Totosai gave her a solemn look and breathed in the astringent air. "Mama, who took the picture of Kagome?" He wondered idly.

His wife shook her head slightly and ran a hand through his thinning, white hair. "I don't know." She replied, raising her eyes to the window above his head.

Snow flurries caught the cusp of the sill, making her wonder about InuYasha. She wondered if he had run off and left them alone. Her intentions to take care of him were selfish. He was a man of his own will, and had he been their kin, she wouldn't have felt so guilty.

She held no remorse for giving him a home, but the reason she did was to fill that ache ever since Kagome had gone away.

Bringing her attention back to her husband, she patted his hand and leaned back into her chair. His breathing was calmer, a bit more steady.

He closed his eyes and relaxed. "I want you to bring me the camera." He told her softly. The look on her face was hard, stoic in comparision to the gentle give it usually held.

She found him aloof and out of his mind with these notions that bringing out the source of their misfortune was going to do anything to make his body feel better.

Kaede was just astounded. Yet, in her heart, she knew she would give in and do that much for him. Closing her eyes, she rested and tried to find a comfortable position to sleep in.

Even after a year, their hurt seemed to grow. If Totosai passed away, he would be unfullfilled by the emptiness that shot through his heart.

Her husband at least deserved a chance to make himself feel as though he had done the best that he could to find the girl. Kaede could give him that, she decided, drifting off into a groggy slumber.

Downstairs, the registery was bustling, filled with people waiting to find their loved ones and fill their empty stomaches. InuYasha and Shippo had finally made it to the hospital before snow had started picking up.

The handful of miles felt like a thousand in that cold wind. He'd ended up just carrying the boy against his chest, buttoned inside of his coat. Shippo had fallen asleep with his fingers curled in his shirt. It was probably better that he got some rest, anyway, he decided.

InuYasha was half awake himself, wiping his hands down his face to stay that way. His coffee wasn't doing much for him, at any rate, either. The hour had passed and he hadn't a clue to Shippo's mother's name.

The pregnancy ward was packed, and it would have been rude to just barge in on a sleeping pregnant woman. So, against his better judgement, he waited.

One of the women at the desk told him to sit down and she would have someone escort he and the boy upstairs. That had seemed like days ago.

Sitting down just made him feel anxious. He destested hospitals and the putrid smell of bleach and the hint of death that lingered.

This hospital was older, white washed on the inside. The outside had been just as weathered, with chipped foamy green paint and a half-lit sign. All the furnishings were brown, smelling of leather and plastics.

InuYasha was about to give up and fall asleep with the woman came around the tall counter. She knelt down, placing a hand on his, making his eyes shoot open.

Her hands were warm, soft against his. "Excuse me," She said in a low voice, trying not to wake the sleeping boy. "Do you want to go upstairs, now?"

InuYasha rubbed his neck and stood up, stretching out the kinks in his back. "Um, yeah. I appreciate it." He said with a yawn, trying his best to keep his balance.

The woman brushed back her bangs and smiled. She leaned over and grabbed a set of charts from the counter and motioned for him to follow her. "My name's Sango, if you need anything else, you can ask for me." She said politely.

InuYasha nodded and zigzagged with her to a row of three elevators. They creaked and cracked as they made their descent from the floors above, leaving him nervous.

Sango pressed the button repeatedly until one of the doors opened like a hungry mouth. Stepping inside, she slumped against the wall, watching InuYasha cradle Shippo as to not wake him with his movement.

"He looks like a doll," She said, adjusting her ponytail. "He always that sweet?"

InuYasha shrugged oddly and bit his lip. "He's not mine, actually." He breathed, running a hand through his long hair, which he had stuffed in the collar of his coat.

The woman apologized at her mistake. "You just take care of him like he's your son." She said, holding onto the railing as the doors reopened.

InuYasha smiled, feeling a bit proud that someone thought he could have been a pretty decent father. "I just was taking care of him today. He said his mother was in the hospital here, and the folks I'm staying with are here." He shrugged, "Just thought I'd bring him to see her for a while."

Sango's dark eyes looked tired, make up half-eaten around them. "Awfully sweet of you, sir." She said, leading him to a desk that sat low against the floor.

Absently, he signed them in and followed her down the small hallway. "There are only a few woman here, so it shouldn't be too hard to find her if she's still here."

Knocking on each door, she peeked in at the half sleeping women. InuYasha had half remembered what the woman had looked like and figured he'd go on that. When they reached the last door and didn't find her, his stomach dropped.

Sango chewed at her lip and looked up at him, hands flipping through the floor chart. "That's all the women here. You don't know her name?" She asked, knowing she shouldn't have even brought him up there.

"No," He said with frustration, trying his best to keep from kicking a wall. "I know what she looks like, but that's about it. He was by himself today and said that his father was fishing, so I couldn't leave him alone." He said with a tired rasp.

Sango held up her finger, "One second and I'll go see if anyone knows about the discharges." She said, rushing off to look for the nurse.

When she returned, she was rubbing a temple and took him to a seat in the waiting room. The hum of the vending machine stung the air as she plopped down with her hands clasped together. Shippo was stirring against InuYasha's chest and he absently bounced his knee.

Sango shook her head a little, "Where does he live?" She asked.

"We live in fishing district of Akita, why?" InuYasha furrowed his brows, rubbing the boy's back, trying to get him back to sleep.

The woman sighed and rubbed her cheek, "She passed away this morning. There was a problem with her heart, and there was no family contacts. It said that she was widowed."

InuYasha's body was alert, looking down at the boy's rosy face, trying to wrap the words around his head. He couldn't quite understand what was happening. She had left this boy with nothing. It hadn't been intentional, but shouldn't there have at least been someone to take care of him?

Sango wiped her mouth and let her hands fall on her knees, "The children's service will probably take him if there's no family. He'll be placed in foster care eventually." She said sadly, watching InuYasha take an offense to the words.

"So, that's it?" He said, aggitated by her response. "He'll just go somewhere unfamiliar and just live like nothing ever happened?"

Sango let out a sigh, trying to find anything else that would be of any value to him. "I can't say. I wouldn't be surprised if the services were there in the morning. But, there is _no_ family that you know of?"

InuYasha shook his head dejectedly. He knew what it was like when he lost his parents and it was hell growing up. He'd done alright until last year, anyway. Rubbing his face, he felt the weathering of his life corrode the youth from his skin.

The woman picked at her lavendar scrubs. The room was stagnant with a resounding silence, wrapping itself through their ears. She picked up the chart and slid it across the couch, raising the page with her information.

She pulled a pen out and looked up at him, her hand reaching to grab his. "They haven't filed in the system yet because they have to wait for the final autopsy."

InuYasha arched a brow at her with a grimace resting on his face. "So, what does that mean?"

Sango lowered her eyes at the paper and handed him a pen. She manuevered herself close to him, leaning towards him. "This is a little town, a little city," She whispered, "We don't have what the bigger cities have. That boy will probably be bounced back and forth for years before he settles down."

InuYasha eyed her, reading over the information.

"You seem to care a great deal for him." She said, "I don't ever suggest such things, but do you think that you would be capable to take care of him?" Her voice weary with concern.

InuYasha sighed inwardly and just stared at her for a moment. He thought about how much he had wanted a child. Granted, he had wanted one with his wife, one of _his_ own. Considering that he had nothing to lose, he grabbed the pen, "What do I need to do?"

Sango smiled with relief, her heart was about break had he left the child to go on his own way. Pulling her own pen from behind her ear, she pointed at the spaces on the page.

"Sign your name for _partner_." She indicated, looking over shoulder to make sure no one was coming in. To be safe, she stood to shut the door and returned to her seat. "We're just going to fill in the blanks. I don't do this for everyone, because I _need_ this job."

For some reason, the woman had felt at ease around him. She was a romantic at heart and wanted nothing but happy endings for everyone that set foot in her hospital. If she could help it, every soul that could have that, she encouraged any means.

Sango wasn't a crooked woman, but these two seemed as though they needed one another. There was something about him that made her trust him, trust that he would do the right thing.

What she hadn't realized was that she had solidified himself as part of the shanty. He was a part of life, society again. And if it meant watching over this boy, he would raise him the best he could.

As he frauduently gave himself custody of the child, he thought about how Kaede would react to the boy being there. He would have to find a real job, one that involved real work, a steady income.

Saving Shippo from a life of hardship seemed the best gift he could offer, seeing as he was given a second chance.

As he recoiled with the pen, InuYasha felt he had a purpose again. Not just one to wonder about a girl beyond his reach, but a _real _purpose. He felt like he was being protective, regaining the right to call himself a man.

Sango looked over the papers and extended a hand to him. "Well, Ito-san, you are the father of a five year old." She said, a hint of happiness in her voice.

InuYasha smirked lightly, brushing a finger through the boys curls. "Thank you for what you did, Sango." He said, receiving an absent nod.

"I'll go file these downstairs so I know that they'll be taken care of properly. I'll give you my number in case you need any questions answered, or any assistance programs for him." She offered, "Did you need anything else before we go?"

InuYasha searched her dark eyes for a moment before he felt a blush hit his cheeks. It hadn't been intentional, but he hadn't looked into a woman's eyes like that in a long time. There was nothing there, nothing adulterated, or perverse, just a genuine sense of gratitude.

"Um," He tore himself from his thoughts, "I need to find Higurashi Totosai. They brought him in this afternoon." InuYasha said, pushing himself to his feet. Sango handed him a piece of paper with her number.

"Do you know what for?" She asked, reopening the door.

As they exited, InuYasha shook his head. "No, but the ambulance brought him. He's in his late seventies." He said with a scowl, hoping that he hadn't passed away.

If he had, Kaede-baba would have found a way to contact him, surely. Sango had be quick to snap her fingers and point him down the hall, as they rounded a corner.

"He's probably in the main infirmary," She said, "Just head straight through those doors. It's a bit different down there, because they don't have rooms, per say. Just ask the clerk and they can tell you if they've moved him."

InuYasha smiled and waved as he and the boy made their way to the doors. It hadn't been hard to find Old Totosai and Kaede. They were one of the ten patients the floor still had.

Kaede was drooling, her head lolled back on the backside of a chair. He'd tried not to laugh when the nurse pulled back the curtain, and sat Shippo down, wrapping him up in his coat.

He loomed over Totosai for a moment, lips pressed firmly together. He looked like an infant, curled in fetal position. His heart monitor was flashing with normality, gracing the rest of the night with an easiness none of them had felt all day.

InuYasha leaned his back against the foot of the stablized bed and tried to sleep. He wasn't about to wake anyone. It was fair near three in the morning, and tomorrow wasn't going to be gentle.

All of the explainations and mending of hearts would be a progress in itself. Before slumber wrapped its fingers around him, he was lost in the moment of redemption, wondering how his life had begun to reconstruct the way it had.

Fate had obviously chosen him for something.

He just didn't know what.


	4. Cat

**AN; **

**Alright. This chapter was a bit hard to write, so forgive me if there's anything odd, or errors. The next chapter is going to bring a lot of things out of the closet.**

**So, with that said, I hope that you guys enjoy this. I'll have an update in the morning for all of you lovely people!**

**If you have questions, or anything like that, feel free to ask. I'll always answer.**

_**And as always, to my lovely readers and reviewers.**_

_**Your feedback is always appreciated and encouraging, though never expected.**_

_**-Oh Jiru-**_

_Chapter Four:_

_**The Cat.**_

Eager eyes awoke that somber morning, begging and pleading with a need to find his mother. InuYasha had to fight his heart on the method of exposing the truth to this young child. Kaede had told him that honesty would push him forward as a person, not leave him to wonder.

She'd sent them back to the inn, just _in case _someone happened to show up. It had been a surprise to the old woman that the man had done such a deed. Normally, people looked the other way at the unfortunate.

Considering the circumstances around it, Kaede was more than willing to be of help. She'd always been fond of children, especially that little Shippo. Totosai seemed content, as well. It had warmed InuYasha to the toes knowing that he had done right by someone.

He'd never admit how proud of himself he was to another soul, but he was pretty damned sure that he could hold his head high. Old Totosai gave him a pat on the back with those brail hands, still tethered to the row of machines.

The old man was stuck at the infimary for another few days, at least. It did give him precious time to spend with his newfound son, at any rate. Surprisingly enough, he felt certain about his parenting abilities.

It was most likely because Sango had fauned all over him about it when he grabbed a cup of coffee with her. She was coming back in for a split shift, and thought he may want her old bicycle to make the trip back easier.

He wasn't sure if she was a saint, or just really generous. Either way, he was grateful that there was someone helpful in that hospital. She'd even been as kind as to buy Shippo a stuffed rabbit on her way to work.

Before he left for the shanty that day, she'd stuffed his coat with information packets, medical records, anything and everything that he could have ever needed.

Shippo seemed to adore her. He'd sat with the rabbit pressed to his nose, smelling her soft perfume from the time they got _home_. He looked distraught, curiously making friends with his new toy.

Whereas InuYasha tried his hand at cooking some breakfast, but failed miserably, filling the kitchen with smoke. He was already flabbergasted and just dumbfounded by the events of the past couple of days to really pay attention to the food.

His body was still sore from the way he slept, though he could excuse himself with that one. He'd showered and rested for a while when they got back, so the pretence of his cooking was all on him - _not the way the day had gone_.

Grimacing, he shucked the spoiled eggs from the griddle and let out a sigh. Shippo looked up from his spot on the chair, questions hanging knowingly at the bottom of his eyes. He knew it was a matter of time before he'd have to tell him what had happened to not one, but_ both_ of his parents.

They were kindred spirits, it seemed.

Before he got the chance to make some measly toast, Shippo's small voice spilled out _the _question. It made the man's body tense as he slammed the creaky oven shut.

He nearly burned himself on the damn door. Those nerves of his took a final blow when he raised his eyes to meet Shippo's. It felt like he walked a mile to get to the table and sit down.

The little boy pulled his rabbit from his face and put it front of him on the table top, eyes transfixed on it's silky feet. InuYasha was certain he already knew the answer and noted how _brave_ that child was.

"Shippo," InuYasha said softly, leaning down with his elbows atop his lanky legs. He tried to formulate the words before they tumbled out of his mouth. It wasn't translating well in his brain, so he just erupted with the first thing he could think of that wasn't brash, or could be misconstrued as cruel.

"Your mother is with your father, now." He said, the pit of his stomach tied itself in knots. It was like being the sharpest drop of a rollercoaster, losing your breath and all. "I'm sorry that things had to be this way," He swallowed hard, feeling Shippo's will break.

Shippo furrowed his brows, cheeks reddening like wildfire. The fiber of his body felt like dead weight, stoned to the chair beneath him. He didn't feel like moving, talking, breathing...

For all he cared, he could just never move again.

InuYasha pulled the boy's chair closer to him, pressing his forehead against his. He looked up at him, a sad smile hitting his mouth. "I'm going to take care of you now, okay?" His voice was gruff, yet gentle. "I know I'm not your mother, or father, but I'm going to do my best."

Shippo responded by finally raising his eyes, finding it hard to believe that InuYasha would care enough to do that. "You're gonna leave me, too, aren't you?" He muttered, finding the whole ordeal to be emptying.

All of the other children already made fun of him. They picked on him for being poor, scrawny for his age. They didn't know what he had gone through, nor did they care. He was the weak link, beaten by the upper hand of their congress.

InuYasha leaned away from the boy, his neck tilted as he looked out the frost-bitten window. "I don't plan on it. I think that I _do_ want to build a snowman, though." He shot the jaded child a grin, gesturing for him to come play.

He knew it wouldn't take the pain away, but just getting outside and venting would do him some sort of good, wouldn't it?

"I don't want to." Shippo said in a near whisper, grabbing the plush rabbit. "I want my Mama." His voice was strangled, painfully sharp. It was all he could do to hold back the tears stabbing at his eyes.

InuYasha gave a nod as he stood up to get the toast. "It'll be alright, Shippo. I promise. I lost my mother and father when I was young, too. You just have to get through it the best you can."

He gave a shrug, his memory hitting him as though it had happened yesterday. It didn't take long for him to recover to pull the flimsy tray from the oven. His body went slack in defeat as he stared down at the dismally charred bread.

"I think I'm going to take you for some food. I apparently can't cook for shit." He said, disapproving of his completely _able cooking skills_.

Shippo hopped out of the chair, pattering across the wooden floor. When he came to the corner of the counter, he peered at the blackend toast. He scowled at it and looked begrudgingly at InuYasha.

"I don't think you can handle me if you can't make toast." The boy said sarcastically. The man beside him rolled his eyes and wiped his hands on his jeans.

"Well, that's why they made restaurants, Shippo." InuYasha retorted, leaving the kitchen in a mess, heading towards his room. They may not have been a luxury some months ago, but now, he could say things like that again.

Standing on his own two feet was easier with someone to care for. When it was just him, it felt like there was no one to pull him from the fathom that he had fallen to. Yet, as it were, there _had been_ when he really need them.

It made him relish the things that he could do for that kid. They were both wayward, awkward, a bit snide. Two peas in the proverbial pod would have been more appropriate, InuYasha decided as he hunkered down in front of the wardrobe.

Shippo had followed him, hopping on the unmade bed. He was watching some broadcast on the one of five channels they received and laid his head down. He and his bunny, Buyo, curled up in the blankets, waiting on InuYasha to get some clothes ready.

It was boring on that dreary day, so full of distress. Shippo was trying to be a man, holding all of his emotions in. A few tears did creep past the strong barrier he tried to create and tried to hurry InuYasha along.

He'd been standing there, struck dumb by the sheer idea of clothing the child. Kaede-baba _had_ to have something he could wear, at least until he picked up some clothes from the boy's house.

Dropping down to his knees, he searched the depths of the two drawers that rested along the bottom. In the right drawer, there was a pair of bronzed infant shoes with Kagome's mother's name inscribed on the bottom of a plaque.

His fingers ran across it before sitting it back down in the darkness. A grumble escaped his lips as he fell back on his hands. He was about to give up when he caught sight of a small box in the very back of the drawer.

Licking his lips, he leaned forward and carefully removed it. He turned to sit cross-legged, placing it in his lap. Shippo peeked over the edge of the bed, trying to see what he had found. The boy rolled over on his stomach and scooted forward, eyes never leaving the object.

"What's that?" Shippo asked, his rabbit watching curiously, as well.

InuYasha brushed back his bangs, moving his curtain of hair out of the way. "Well, its a _box_."

Shippo rolled his eyes, "Obviously." He snickered when InuYasha shot him a perturbed look before his attention turned back to said box. An old sutra was tied down with red fishing twine, keeping the contents pure and safe.

InuYasha chewed at his lip, contemplating opening it. It wasn't _his_, but it was in _his_ room. If he'd been a cat, he'd have been dead ten times over. That curiousity killed that cat shit probably pertained to him, anyway.

Shippo arched his brows, "Well, are you gonna open it?" He asked, feeling a yawn overtake him. His tiny fist rubbed his sore eyes, finding it hard to stay awake.

InuYasha sighed, probing his conscience. "I don't know if I _should_. I mean, it's not mine or nothing. I don't want to upset Old Baba." He said, his eyes still glued to it. Nothing in their house was hidden from him. They told him anything that he found he could use. This did seem like it qualified as _anything_.

Mulling it over, he closed his eyes and ran his fingers through the twine, gently slipping it off. He was careful to remove the sutra with the tips of his fingers, placing it on the floor beside him.

Shippo thought he looked like he was in pain, wincing at the damn thing. It was _just a box_. The boy huffed, silently.

When InuYasha's long fingers slid the top of, Shippo immediately curled to his knees, almost falling off the bed. He scrambled to him, plopping down.

InuYasha scoffed, "_Keh._ It's just a camera. It thought it was going to be something good." He was about to put the lid back on when Shippo spoke up, hand reaching in the box.

"That's _Kagome's_." He said looking at InuYasha's changing expressions. They varied so drastically that he couldn't grasp to just one.

"Kagome's?" InuYasha asked idly, running his hand across the smooth casing. There was sand still clinging to the nooks of the in-lay. "How do you know that?" He asked, turning to face the small boy.

Shippo frowned, "I was playing with the beach dog and she was taking pictures. A man came up to her and talked to her, and took the camera." He shrugged, finding his memory to be bleeding out little bits and pieces.

At the time, he didn't think anything of it. He thought that the man had been a friend of the girl's, so he never bothered recalling it.

"_And?_" InuYasha snapped, as though he had found the Holy Grail. He picked at the top, pressing the button that opened the film cartridge.

"I don't really remember." Shippo replied honestly. "He told her to come with him for a minute and I never saw her again. She dropped it and I held on to it until Old Totosai came. He was really upset."

The room seemed to darken, become less of the dreamscape that it had been before he discovered this. _His_ child had seen the man that had taken Kagome from the arms of this little town.

A formidable wave crashed upon him as he tore the film from the case. Shippo leaned over as InuYasha gently unrolled it, like a scroll. What laid within those negatives made his heart quicken, jostling the muscles in his throat until he didn't know if he could breathe.

_There it was_.

It was overlooked, shelved, cast to the wayside. There were two or three snapshots of the dog, one of Shippo, and the backside of a man standing tall against the shoreline. He was wearing, what looked like, a suit.

His hair was long, clean looking. InuYasha tilted the film to catch the light ever so delicately. He didn't want to ruin them, but he was so curious, he couldn't help himself. There wasn't else, just blanks and pictures that didn't quite take.

He almost rolled it back up when he saw a random negative catch his attention. Shippo had seen it to and pointed at it avidly, as if it jogged his memory.

"_Him_." He said. "That's the man that was there that day."

InuYasha's blood ran colder than the snow outside. He was terse, hardened by the idea of someone forcing that girl to do anything. The woman in his head was spry, witty, and down right free.

His tired eyes inspected the frame, etching the half of the man's face into his mind. The man looked a bit older than him, probably in his thirties. Stubble lined his angular jaw, leading up to dark eyes.

A scar ran from his nostril to the curve of his lip, leaving a trace of abnormality. _That was the man._ He wished he had a name. That Hojo boy probably knew, he seemed like he was glued to Kagome at one point or another.

InuYasha shook his head clear of any thought, and hastily shoved the film back in the cartridge, fumbling with the box. He didn't want anyone to know that he had gotten into it. Shippo looked up at him as he slammed the doors to the wardrobe closed.

"Grab Buyo, okay?" InuYasha said, his body exploding to the marrow. He was electrified, but stifled it in order to even remotely focus on Shippo. "We'll talk about this later. Let's get you some food. I bet you're starving."

The boy looked around as InuYasha grabbed their shoes from the shelf.

"Um, InuYasha?" Shippo hesitantly mumbled, looking down at his near bare legs.

InuYasha pressed his palm to his forehead, "_Fuck_." He grunted, quickly realizing he had to cut the language. He _wasn't_ a sailor anymore. "Alright, I'm going to have to put you in my jacket until we can get you some clothes, okay?"

Shippo nodded and reached his short arms out. InuYasha plucked him and Buyo up, placing an arm underneath him to keep him from falling.

The rest of the day had turned into a heinous blur of crying, eating, looking for _anyone_ who might know _anything_. The worst part had been when they went to Shippo's old home.

It was just down the way from the inn, and was barely standing. The floor was thin, brittle and full of holes. InuYasha barely knew how the kid had survived the winters around here. The house was more of a hut with one large room and one bedroom.

Everything was in disarray, save for the bedroom. His mother's belongings lay as she left them, and the photographs on the walls hung memories like the sky hung the stars at night. They were factual, never changing.

InuYasha had let Shippo cry amongst the ashes of his old life, laying with him on his mother's bed. He didn't have much in the way of clothes to begin with, but they took what he had.

InuYasha found an old back-pack and placed a few photos, letters, toys and the like inside. The boy had been adamant about taking his mother's quilt. It was something that he just wore around his shoulders before dropping it off at home.

After the boy had mourned, the three of them, yes, Buyo, too, had hoped on the rusty old bike Sango had given them. Buyo sat in the front basket, while Shippo sat upon InuYasha's lap.

It had been well afternoon when they realized they hadn't eaten. Shippo had requested they go visit Sango and eat in the cafeteria, and InuYasha had wilted at the request. He'd just lost his mother, who was he to what he could and couldn't have?

So, he pedaled like a fool in the icy weather. The sky was drab, like a gray blanket smothering out the sunlight. The barren, black trees breezed by, emptying any sense of life from the wooden areas that laid in between the towns.

By the time they had arrived at the hospital, their faces were frozen, red and numb. Shippo had run ahead, leaving InuYasha to place his bike along the rack. His head was too full for him to process much more than that simple task.

He was pretty sure a migraine was building as he shuffled inside. It was fairly easy to spot Sango, seeing as she was sitting on the guest side of the desk. Shippo happily sat in her lap, while she unwrapped a sucker.

"Oh, there you are." The woman said fondly, handing the sucker to the boy. He latched onto her neck and thanked for the rabbit again.

"Yeah," InuYasha said dumbly, ruffling his own hair. "I'm already too tired to function." He said with a scoff.

Sango merely brushed it off and grabbed her purse. She grunted as she attempted to lift the boy in her arms. If she had been a much bigger woman, it would have been easy, but she was thin as a rail.

"So, this little one told me that you _can't cook for shit_." She chided, shifting him to her side.

InuYasha's face, had it already not been destroyed by color, would have been littered with blush. "Uh, yeah. That sounds about right." His hand rubbed his neck in embarrassment.

"Well," Sango said, "I'm about to head home for the day." Her mouth pecked the corner of the boy's head and he frowned at her.

A passing thought hit her and she looked back towards InuYasha. "I can cook you boys something to eat if you want. I can wait with him if you want to go see your family." She said, her body gesturing to the elevators.

InuYasha gaped his mouth dumbly for a moment before it registered. "Uh yeah, that would be great. I appreciate it. The kid's been talking about you all day." He waved his hand stupidly as he headed towards the infirmary.

The ride upstairs left him basking in the glory of complete silence. He'd longed to forget it when he had it, but now it was like a treasure. Sango was something else. She was just about as trusting and thoughtful as they came.

If she'd been his type, he'd have had his name all over her. A caliginous smile draped across his face as he thought of Kikyo. He hoped that she would have been proud of him for being a better man than he had been before. Every bit of him still loved her, and mourned her loss.

And, as he headed towards Old Totosai's partition, new that was why he understood the need to find Kagome. No matter how far apart, life or death, they would still love her. Hell, he didn't even know her and he thought fondly of the girl.

She was like a plague, eating away the very last section of his brain. His entire day was spent wondering about her again, so much so that he nearly passed by Kaede as she exited the curtain.

Her barbed hands clasped to his arm, almost scaring the death out of him. "Oi, InuYasha, what are you doing all the way over here?" She slurred, trying to catch his attention. "Where's Shippo?"

It took him a moment, but he snapped to. "Oh, I'm sorry. I don't know where I'm at today." InuYasha sighed, his expression falling lazily. "He's with that lady, Sango, that came by this morning. She's apparently making us lunch."

His hands nervously stuffed themselves in his jeans pockets, making him feel like a teenager again. Kaede gave him a slightly disapproving stare before letting out a laugh.

"As soon as you become a single father, all the women seem to come like ships to a lighthouse." Her voice was rattly and hoarse.

InuYasha feigned a smile, knowing all too well that Kaede-baba was a direct woman. For someone that was nonsense, she certainly had plenty of the latter.

"How is Totosai, Baba?" He finally asked.

Kaede shook head slightly, "He's awake now if you want to talk to him. I'm gonna get this old sack of mine a snack."

The man nodded as she motioned for him to bend down to her level. He stood about a foot taller than the woman and she placed a peck on his cheek. "You've got a good soul under that rough exterior." She hummed, patting him on the back. "Don't get Papa too wound up, he may want to get up and leave."

InuYasha rubbed the spot on his cheek she had kissed as he walked behind the curtain.

The old man was sitting up while he read the paper. His feeble hand held a cup of juice, trying not to dribble it on his night gown. He seemed thrilled when he looked up to see InuYasha plop down in the chair.

"I haven't seen you in a while." Totosai said, putting the paper upon his pale covers.

The boy lolled his head back. "I had to bring the kid for lunch. He had to see his new girlfriend, seeing as how I can't even open cereal." A laugh, a genuine laugh struck him.

Old Totosai smirked, his mouth nearly curling to his nose. "If it wasn't for Mama, I'd have starved along time ago. I never was much of a cook." He said, casting his gaze down to the white tile beneath the boy's feet.

He noticed a red piece of twine wrapped in his shoe lace. His expression was lugubrious as he raised a knobby finger to point at the thread. "Where did that come from?"

Time stopped as soon as those words bellowed in that false room. InuYasha immediately sat up with fear seeping from his pores. _How in hell had that gotten there_?

Panic seized his heart as he fumbled trying to untether the twine. "I-I..." He stammered, losing all the ground he had built up throughout the day.

Totosai swatted a hand knowingly and shushed him. "Hush, I don't want to hear your excuses." He bit, not as harshly as InuYasha had imagined. "You found _it_, didn't you?" His forehead wrinkled in a furrow.

The man's hands turned to sopping pits of moisture as he rubbed them together, winding the string around his fingers, turning the skin white. "I was looking for something Shippo could wear until I got him some clothes, and I was curious." It was the truth. What he found hadn't been premeditated, of course.

Surely, he thought, chewing at his lip, Totosai knew that.

When their gaze crossed, the old man breathed in through his tubing and sighed. "I told Mama to bring it to me, but she wouldn't. I guess it's not all that bad that you found it. Did you look at anything else?" He asked, already knowing the answer.

One nod confirmed everything, slamming the world down on him. "Shippo knew it was Kagome's." He blurted out, "He said he was the one that gave it back to you."

InuYasha's eyes were searching between the folds that hung over Totosai's. Had he known all along that Shippo was there? That must have been why he was so kindly to the boy.

"_That boy_ is something else." Totosai rasped. His eyes closed as though he was deep in thought. "Did you loo at the film, son? I just need to know. I never thought about the damn thing until last night."

When InuYasha answered, Papa seemed to come alive. Every move he made, no matter how staggering, was animate, listless. He wasn't sure if he was grateful that he had done such a thing, rummaging through their personal belongings and all.

It only took a moment before Totosai nodded, "Take that camera and have the photos developed. I want to see them when I get home. Don't tell Mama."

InuYasha agreed and pushed himself to his feet.

Nervously saying their goodbyes, they both drifted within the confines of their breezing memories. That _hope_ that InuYasha had found so strong, so bountiful, was starting to diminish like the glimmer of daylight.

If it wasn't for Sango babysitting Shippo, he would have stayed and talked as long as he could. Time had already made it clear that he had been there too long, and wrestled with his stomach to take his mind of much else.

After their lunch date, getting back home was starting to seem like a good idea. He didn't want to be stuck in this town any longer than he had to be. It was just turning into a game of cat and mouse, and damned if he could catch that mouse.

**AN;**

**So, this chapter here, I hope that it was a good bridge. I wanted to focus on the relationships, and the acceptance that had to happen.**

**I know the time frame is relatively short, but the characters are maturing on their own time. **

**As far as the Sango/InuYasha thing, you guys can formulate your own opinions for now. ;D**

**Thank you guys for reading.**


	5. Seraph

**AN;**

**I don't beg for readers to listen to songs, I merely suggest them as companions to the stories that I write. In this case, I feel like I **_**must**_** push this song.**

**It's **

_**I and Love and You**_

_**- The Avett Brothers**_

**I feel like this song just fits this story so well. So, if you have a minute and like finding new music, Youtube it. **

**Thank you again to all of my readers and reviewers! Thank you so much for the messages and feedback. I've been receiving such wonderful messages and reviews that it makes writing this story even more fulfilling.**

**Sorry if there are errors and the like, my friends. **

**Enjoy.**

_**Chapter Five:**_

_**The Seraph.**_

A renewal sprang from the cinders of loneliness that tired bones had felt, rekindling an honest relationship for all those that begged for its presence. The weeks that had passed since two of the wanderers found refuge, they basked in the warmth their new shelter provided.

_Sango_ had tended to the emotional needs of her guests for a few weeks, now. The pair she had grown so fond of resounded with kind gestures and surprise visits to her job. It had been nice to finally get to know someone that shared an opinion of the world, other than the women that so briskly persecuted their families for what they had been _given_.

InuYasha was content to just stay in the warmth of her small apartment, maybe a mile from the hospital. Totosai had stayed longer than expected, but with his waning age, it had become known that he would be in and out of the establishment. Most likely, they said, for the rest of his meager days.

Kaede-baba visited the orderly went she felt up to it, bringing a few pastries and buns to good measure. She was proud of her boys for finding such a good woman to help them along in their strife.

InuYasha had mostly taken a liking to her cooking. When no one else was home, he knew he and his adopted son always had an open invitation to raid her fridge if she was at work.

Today, however, InuYasha was rounding out his first week at his new job. It was temporary, but he had a few extra thousand yen in his pocket. He'd been saving all the _spending_ _money_ Kaede and Old Totosai had given him for his help.

He felt lucky that he was good with his hands and did part of a restoration project on the old hospital. It was another debt he owed to Sango, but she could careless. Their friendship was easy, understanding.

If he could have loved her, he would have. They found out quickly that neither had feelings for one another, as a kiss had attempted to bring them closer together. It had fallen short of what either had expected, and left them with a laugh. 

Shippo had been a been disappointed, but Sango was just content mothering the boy regardless of her status. It was already proven that she was like a mother, at least for now.

InuYasha had found out that she couldn't have children of her own, and the idea of having one to smother with all of her love, well...

...that was just something that she relished.

However, she was going on vacation this week, heading out to Tokyo to see a friend of hers. That was going to leave them without a reason to really get out of the shanty, but as it were, they _could have been less lazy_.

InuYasha had mulled over the idea of going along, but it wasn't quite sure how the old couple would take it. It would do him some good to go back home, pay his respects to his wife, maybe see that scoundrel, Miroku.

He let out a sigh as the thought passed. Kaede-baba was still pretty upset with him finding the camera, and had hidden it from the room. Totosai was disappointed when he found out that his wife had moved it somewhere safer.

The old man had moped for that whole week, trying to figure out where the old bat had put the damn thing. InuYasha and Shippo had done his snooping upon his check-up visits, coming up empty handed every time.

InuYasha relented, plopping on his bottom, rubbing his face in frustration. Shippo sat at the table coloring with Buyo, trying to stay busy before lunch. Kaede would be back soon, as she fixed homemade dinners for her husband.

He'd almost given up hope on ever knowing what happened to the girl. He kept that red twine tied up in his shoelaces, reminding him that to remember anything that reminded him of her.

His callous fingers picked at it idly before he stood up, grunting at the exertion. His son looked over to him and shook his curls from his eyes. "You didn't find it?"

InuYasha shook his head, helping the boy pick up his emptied box of crayons. "You wanna go see Miss Sango?" He asked, knowing the answer. When he caught a glimpse of the picture, he knew it had been for her.

She loved owls and cats, and seemingly, Shippo had drawn both to appease her. They were janky, a bit off, but adorable all the same.

The table chair skidded as he hopped downing, pattering to their shared bedroom. The inn was large enough he could have had his own. Shippo had resigned to sleeping beside his father figure, watching the late night dramas with him.

The boy's belongings were strewn about the floor, making him stumble as he looked for his new clothes. With a yelp, he tripped, falling beside the low rising bed.

His small hands rubbed his face as he looked at the dusty underside of the mattress. There was a woman's shoe, some old gum wrappers, courtesy of InuYasha's habit, and a small book.

Curiously, Shippo laid on his stomach, crawling beneath the bedframe. His small hands wiped away the dust and picked up the book. When he sat up, he blew off the cover. It was small with a red matte finish.

There was a picture of a birdcage on the front and a broken silver lock on the side. Shippo had known well enough it was a diary, and greedily stuffed it in his coat pocket. InuYasha had rested his hands on the door frame, letting his arms hang down.

"You about ready, Shippo?" He said, trying to hurry the runt up.

The boy grabbed a pair of jeans and socks with a nod. "I'm coming, InuYasha." He replied, stuffing his legs into his pants. A pair of new, green sneakers rested on the shoe-shelf and he plucked them up in his arms.

InuYasha pulled on striped thermal along with a black coat, which hung about his knees. His dark eyes watched the boy's face flush as he knelt down to tie his shoes, "Somethin' wrong, Shippo?"

The little boy straightened up, pressing his thoughts to the back of his head. He didn't want InuYasha to have the book. He had found it first, he mused.

"No," Shippo giggled, rushing to grab his brand new scarf and gloves. InuYasha's hands knit themselves in the pockets of his coat, sliding his skin over the silky interior. He watched Shippo put Buyo's scarf on to keep him warm.

The poor rabbit was already a little stained, smelly, and the fluffiness equated to the a shag carpet. That thing had been to hell and back in the time that he had had it. Buyo was his best friend, defendor of the monsters that crawled from beneath the bed.

InuYasha grabbed an apple from the counter and headed off with his two companions. Kaede was riding in the back of the rickshaw when they passed the edge of town on the bicycle.

Naturally, they stopped and Shippo showed her the picture he'd drawn for Miss Sango. "Look, Kaede!" His tiny voice squealed delighfully. "I drew you one, too. It's on your bed." He said as though he were a professional, keeping the ladies equally as content with his work.

Kaede laughed, handing him a small rustling bag of hard candies. "Well, I think I should pay you for drawing me something pretty." She leaned down to the boy, while he stood on his toes.

InuYasha grimaced when those feet had slipped, trampling his crotch. Kaede smirked, "Well, you already have a son, you don't need _that_ for anything."

The man plastered a hand on his face, trying to hide behind his mass of hair. "My god," He garbled, turning to look at the old woman. "We're going to get lunch from Sango. You want anything from town?"

Kaede shook her head, "No, but she told me she was going out of town." The woman said with a rasp, brushing her hands over her shawl and kimono. The rickshaw driver had set knelt down for a break and a smoke while she talked.

InuYasha balanced the bicycle with his foot, brushing the back of his neck with his hand. A shrug rolled across his shoulders, "Yeah, she told me she was going to Tokyo for the week. I kind of miss the place, sometimes." He drifted away in nostalgia as Shippo adjusted.

Kaede arched a brow, knowingly. "Then why don't you go for a couple of days. I'm sure it'd do you some good to see something familiar. Shippo would probably like it, too!" She exhaled.

InuYasha looked as though he was going to argue, but Kaede shushed him as she had the first night she'd met him. "I know you're coming back. This old woman can take care of herself," She said, her eyes narrowing on him slightly. "As long as you didn't make a mess of my house."

InuYasha chewed at his lip and huffed. "I'll clean it when I get back from Sango's." Those words were so childish that it made Shippo snicker.

The old woman shooed them on their way, "Just make sure to lock the house, I'm going to stay with Papa tonight." Her eyes fell sourly on the geta on her feet. She clutched her purse beside her and let out a sigh. "Wait! InuYasha!" She called, her voice writhing within the cold air.

The boy stopped pedaling and sent Shippo to the cart, "What is it, Baba?" His eyes blinked wildly, trying to wrap his head around the camera she pulled from her purse, shakily.

Shippo gently took the item and held it to his chest, watching her blot her eyes with the tips of her rough fingers. "Take some pictures for me. I haven't been to Tokyo since Kagome's father passed." She said, restructuring her facade. "Now, you boys go along, send me a letter if you're going to be longer, or call the hospital."

The small boy crawled back onto his father's lap, wrapping the strap around his neck. InuYasha looked down at the camera and felt victorious. He had the one thing that he needed to find her, he thought as they parted ways.

A piece of him fell to the wayside, trying its best to stay behind in the shanty of Akita. This was going to be the first time he'd left the area since he had ended up there. So many things had happened it was hard to believe that he hadn't lived there his whole life.

Everyone knew his name, knew his child, knew the area like the back of his hand...

It was surreal. He couldn't forget the past that brought him to this speck of a city, but he was happy that he had found it. The refuge of Baba's house was going to be hours out of his grasp, should anything of detriment happen.

As the trio zipped across the bumpy road, InuYasha looked back at the dimishing shanty. The wind whipped his hair across his face, leaving him with a billow of silver behind him. His heart was in his throat, choking off his oxygen. He was going back to the place where he had fallen in love, grown up, and lived his life.

There was so much excitement that built within his bones. Shippo was surprised at the youth vigor that had returned to the man. He knew that part of his mind still lingered on Kagome, and the betrayal of leaving her memory in Akita.

A piece of her would be with them, he noted, trying his best to focus on the icy cars that passed by like slugs. They breezed by the hospital, a few little stores, until they made it to a solemn square apartment complex.

Sango's building was in front, the leader of the three that stood in a triangle.

Her small, traditional car was parked on the side-street, overlooking the bay. He was happy she was home, as they dismounted the bike. Shippo grabbed Buyo and rushed to the woman's door, InuYasha following close behind.

The boy tapped the center, the highest point he could reach, and waited to see her fling open the door. Her dark brown eyes lit up the moment she saw his face. He jumped in her arms and hugged her as she dragged him inside.

"Let me guess, you came for some food?" Sango asked, shooting InuYasha a glance, sitting Shippo down at her two person table. She was nimble, quickly rummaging through her refridgerator.

InuYasha hopped upon her counter-top, curling his hands underneath the edge, fingering the cork. "At first yes, I actually needed to talk to you about something."

"Yeah?" Her hands brushed back her long hair, as she pulled out a hot plate from the cabinet. "What is it?"

"Would you care if we tagged along with you, when you go to Tokyo? I got a friend and some business left there." InuYasha said, looking down at her green tiles.

Sango nodded, heating up the food. The kitchen filled with the smell of charred fish and vegetables. "That'd be great, actually. I haven't been there in a long time, so I don't remember much of anything. You could keep from buying up every toy I see."

Her laughter caught Shippo's ears and remembered the picture in his pocket. Unfolding it gently, he hopped up. He and Buyo pinned it to her magnetic clipboard which housed her schedule. "I drew you something, Sango." The boy said proudly, pointing at the crayon scribbles.

The woman looked over her shoulder, grinning. "Oh, look at that! I love my new owl to watch over me!" Her smile was as bright as her eyes. Sunlight kissed her skin through her window as she plated the food.

InuYasha rolled ideas over and over in his head as Sango handed him his fish and a fork. "It's kind of falling apart." She spologized, as she handed the little boy his own plate to share with Buyo.

Licking her fingers, Sango rushed about her apartment. "But, I think that would be a great idea, InuYasha." She hollered from her room, dragging her large suitcase with her.

The man swallowed a mouthful of food, callously wiping his mouth with his sleeve. How polite he had become in all of his years, he mused idly. "When are you heading out?" He asked, leaning over to put his plate in the sink.

Sango gritted her teeth and looked a small Hello Kitty watch on her arm. One of the children had given it to her and she had cherished it. "The last train leaves, who am I kidding, the _only _train leaves in about two hours."

InuYasha bit his lip and hopped down. Shippo lifted his dirty face to him as he chewed at his food. "Do you think I could leave Shippo here and go pack our things? It'd be a lot quicker that way, ne?" His lanky arms crossed over his chest as though they offered an answer.

The little boy looked at her with pleading eyes. She dropped her suitcase with a _thunk_, and moved to turn on the television. "That's fine, I just have to change and things like that. He's always good for me."

"Thanks, um, I'll be right back. We don't have much, so it shouldn't be a problem." InuYasha said as he knelt down to slip off Shippo's jacket. He gave him the fatherly speech on how to behave when he wasn't at home, like he did every time he left him with the woman.

Shippo rolled his eyes and ignored the warmth of his coat and hat leaving him, as InuYasha hung on the two-pronged coat rack next to the door. The book in his pocket fell out on the floor.

Absently, he picked it up and held it in his hand as he inspected the room thoroughly, making sure that Shippo had what he needed. The camera was sitting on the table beside Buyo for safe keeping, and his shoes were neatly tucked by the entrance mat.

A moment later, he was gone.

The afternoon shot by, leaving a panic in his bones. He'd packed shoes, socks, pants, underwear, everything that the child would need. He even remembered his favorite blanket to make sleeping less stressful.

Everything fit neatly in his backpack, leaving InuYasha to borrow a rolling suitcase from the hall closet. It was another thing of Kagome's that he had to contend with.

The corners of its casing were smooth, lined with a red stripe. It was obviously a young woman's bag. The tags had a picture of her on them, with her name neatly written.

His fingers ran aimlessly over the plastic, seeing her smiling face again. It was new, exciting to see the subtly in her features. Instead of removing her tags, he merely taped a makeshift one with his information over it.

All of his belongings fit that bag, which in his mind, was fairly saddening. When he was in Tokyo, he hoped he could pick up a few things from Miroku. A hot breath hit his bangs as he double checked the contents. He'd almost forgotten the book until it hit the wooden floor, clanking against it.

He grabbed it before and stood up, inspecing the age. It was dusty, had tiny fingerprints smeared across it. It wasn't something that he'd noticed Shippo carrying around before today. Kaede-baba hadn't of given it to him, had she?

It wasn't in time's best interest to sit down, but he scooted out the chair at the table, hunkering down for a moment. He could have died when he flipped the cover back, slicking back the once functioning lock.

Inside, there was a world he had only dreamt of. It was _hers_.

_Her diary_.

Each page was filled, top to bottom with information about her feelings, her daily activities. There was nothing more enthralling than the small, delicate strokes that lined the pages.

She started when she was nineteen, it seemed like. The growling breath of the refrigerator seemed to be the only sound he heard. It was almost like a hypnotizing song, outlining the words that Kagome had scribed.

Had InuYasha been any less in a rush, he would have lingered upon those words like a bloody stain. As if it was a chore, he closed the book shut and stuffed it close to his heart, in the pocket lining his breast.

Sango was probably pissed that he hadn't gotten back yet. The train was leaving within the hour. It was times like this he wished he wasn't so simple minded. Being driven mad by the absence _of this one person _was more of a job than when he was a fisherman.

He was about to leave when there was a stout knocking on the front of the door. It snapped him out of the vagary that devoured him. His paramnesia to the tasks at hand were utterly depressing as the thumping echoed louder.

Part of him wondered what kind of person would just beat down the old folks door, but it was an _inn_ after all. His hands deliberately gripped to the handle, sliding the door open.

The very last breath in his body escaped him, staring down the barrel of a loaded gun.

InuYasha's eyes faintly bothered to look up, catching the sight of a pair of eyes just as pale as the morning sky.

Each crank of the hammer sounded like a clock ticking in a silent room. Seconds seemed like hours, hanging a proverbial, and perhaps literal, noose around his neck.

He had never been a pious man, but when he knew when the seraphim sang, the world was ending. And when he saw the man expose the mark of the beast, _that scar_, carving out a mountain above his lip, that this was the man that destroyed Eden.

_It was him. _

**AN:**

**First off; Any guesses as to who the big baddy is?**

**XD**

**Okay, so I wasn't sure if I was going to start an introduction with this chapter, but the path that I've chosen is going to push this forward in the timeline. **

**Chapter Six will be up tomorrow. **

**I'm sorry for the delay to my posting schedule, I was cursed with a murderous migraine. **


	6. Frenzy

**AN:**

**Thank you to my reviewers and readers! You guys make me so happy and inspire me to keep working on this story. This chapter is a little different, but put your detective skills to good use. **

**Enjoy!**

_**At your discretion:**_

**This chapter contains graphic violence, character death, and language.**

**So, I know some people dislike reading material with this kind of subject matter.**

**Chapter Six**

_**Frenzy**_

It was past time to leave, Sango was aggitated to say the very least. Her hands were clammy beneath her gloves, which rested on restless knees. Shippo had fallen asleep, curled upon her old sofa, wrapped in a quilt.

The snow was starting to fall again, leaving little opportunity to see. The dusk was approaching early, due to the emptying of the clouds that rolled in from the bay. She could have strangled that man for being so late.

At some point, she'd packed her belongings in the car, hoping that her neighbor would be kind enough to drop her off at the station. It was about fifteen minutes of a drive, then another ten for the ticket line.

If she didn't leave now, there would be no chance of escaping the woes of this rugged landscape in exchange for the bright neons and crowds of Tokyo. Her friend was probably beside herself with anxiety.

Ayame had never been a patient woman, and she doubted that she would start being understanding now. Closing her weary eyes, she lolled her head back on the cushions, attempting to make time slow down.

Her conscience made it impossible to relax, giving her a break from the stress that had eaten her from the core. Biting her lip, she reached for her keys and purse from the small end table next to her.

If she hurried, she could probably pick InuYasha up on her way, and just pay for the parking. Quietly, she flipped off the lights and the television, before scooping Shippo's dead weight into her arms, blanket and all.

She manuvered his belongings off the coat rack, shutting the door awkwardly with her foot and free fingers. The cold grasped her, making her shiver as she rushed to the car. She made sure Shippo was comfortable as possible, trying not to wake him.

Giving the ignition a few hard cranks, it started with a jerk, sputtering as she peeled away from her spot. The creaky old wipers dragged across the ice, barely scraping away enough to see.

Her body was hot, anxiously fluttering while she tried to focus on her driving. It only took a handful of minutes to get to Kaede-baba's, but those minutes were precious.

"_Come on_!" The woman muttered beneath her breath, waiting for a logging truck to move out of her way. There was one red light that stood between her and the small road that lead through the township.

Her heart raced with adrenaline, bounding her feet against the floor. If she missed the train, it was't the end of the world, per say, just a disappointing setback. She'd rather sleep on the train than sit and stare at the back of heads.

When the light finally decided to change, she crept along the gravel and shell paved road. It was so buried beneath the snow, she could barely move. With a sigh, she looked in her mirror at the sleeping boy and pulled off to the side.

Kaede-baba's was a couple of houses down, making her decide to just park her car where it was. Hell, no one was going to ask her to move in this sleepy hollow. Shutting the door as quietly as possible, Sango crushed the snow pack beneath her feet, struggling to an awkward run.

She had almost made it to the house when she heard a gunshot. Her nerves instaneously frazzled, skin ablaze with a willing fervor.

"_InuYasha._" She gasped, heart flailing in a furious panic.

_She_ _had to get to the house_.

Sango went blind to her surroundings, her muscles tensing beneath the restraints of her clothing. The coat she wore was haphazardly lost, leaving her reddening skin to the will of the air. As cold as it was, it did nothing to quell the heat radiating from her pores.

Her lungs felt as though they would collapse as she tripped, face first into the snow. It pricked her face like needles, stifling her efforts to be daft and heroic.

Her legs were shaking so profusely she could barely register the movement they made, as she slipped across the icy porch. The impact cut her jeans, slicing open her knee. Steam kissed the wintry atmosphere as she grabbed to the railing.

She hoisted herself up, grabbing to the handle of the kitchen door that didn't want to open for her. Her gloves flew to the ground, leaving the frigid handle to scorch her fingers, jerking it open violently.

Loud crashes of furniture echoed throughout the inn, making her breathing almost cease. Her foot had almost made it in the door when she saw InuYasha, panting and covered in blood. His eyes were wild, filled with an inexplicable amount of confusion, rage, and everything in between.

Another man's voice grunted, rasping in pain. He began to yell, loud and deep as InuYasha caught sight of Sango. His long arms flailed grabbing to anything he could balance himself with. He skidded across the floor, taking out one of the kitchen chairs.

"Get the hell out of here!" InuYasha barked, pushing himself back to his feet. He quivered, reaching into his pocket, throwing his wallet at her. Sango shook her head, parting her mouth to speak.

The man shook his head violently, shakily touching her chest. She grabbed his bleeding arm, and raised her eyes to his. It had only been a breath moment in passing, but she wanted to call emergency services.

_Anything_.

"What are you standing there for?" InuYasha yelled, panting and raw. "Get the fuck out of here, _now!_ Get my fucking son out of here! I don't care where you go, just do it, dammit!"

His hands shoved her out the door, backwards off the porch.

She quivered, trying to make her body move. The man, which had evaded her sight earlier, made his way to InuYasha, shooting a voracious glare at her. His eyes were penetrating, cancerous and malignant.

InuYasha waved her off, "_I said fucking move woman_!"

This time she listened. She didn't know how many times she fell, or how long it had taken her to get to the car, but she held her breath until she slammed the door.

Her eyes were wet, melting with salt as she slammed on the gas, sending the car skidding backwards. She shot a glance back at Shippo, feeling her stomach churn like the raging sea. The tips of her fingers pressed the pain in her eyes as she ran the red light that stood in between her and her side of town.

The station had never appeared so quickly to her, as she grabbed the boy, forgetting her bag as she slapped a credit card down. Had she been a moment later, they wouldn't have made it at all.

The fleeting moment of composure was gone as she slid into her seat. She sat Shippo beside her, clutching to his hand as though he was made of iron. Her throat was tense, clenching with each breath.

Her mouth was dry, lips cracked, eyes smeared with mascara. All she could do was stare in disbelief. Her mouth parted to say something as the Shinkansen's conductor chimed about the departure.

She wanted to run back, see if InuYasha was alright. Shippo was still so groggy he hadn't the faintest idea of what was going on. Closing her eyes, she sank into her seat, moving the armrest between them.

The boy curled into her, finally looking up at her with a furrow in his brow. "Where's InuYasha?" He asked softly.

Sango rubbed her face as though it would come off. She forced a smile on her face and laid her head on his. "He'd had to do something at Kaede's. He'll be with us soon." She said, trying to soothe herself.

Every fiber of her being knew that the possibilty of him being dead was real. After the train had begun to clack, she knew there was nothing she could do. Shippo was the priority. Someone in that desolate town should have had some sense to call the authorities.

No matter if there were only three governing forces that compromised the whole area with less than stellar work. If they had been worth a damn, they never would have let Kagome go, she sighed.

God damn her if they lost InuYasha, too.

The woman's off-switch flipped, leaving her with a blank expression. The scenery that passed by did nothing to ease the oppressive weight that crumpled her. There was no oxygen in the compartment.

She was suffocating, looking out the window at the monolithic display of Akita.

Kaede-baba's lay in ruins. The neat household was nothing more than broken furniture, slivered and beaten by the men wrestling upon the floor. InuYasha was staggering, kicking the musclar man's stomach, knocking the breath out of him.

He didn't know how much more he could take. It had been years since the last time he had to defend himself like this. The combat had been raging for what felt like years. Each blow of steeled fists splattered against his skin, busting open a new vein to bleed out, stainging his pale hair.

The man about him had a new collection of scarring to add to the one above his lip. He had no idea why he was there intruding on the elderly couples home. Graciously, it had been InuYasha that had been at home.

How dare he come with a weapon to such a defensly pair. At some point, InuYasha had grabbed a broken sliver of one of the chairs and stabbed the man in the leg. It splinted off, leaving a portion stopping the bloodflow.

His lanky body was bruised, tired from the abrupt exertion. The purity of his adrenaline was gone, leaving his heart to battle with the fleeting oxygen and his blood loss.

Everything had begun to blur, hazy and hypnagogic. The duration of the day was wearing so thin as she fought with his legs to stand. His lungs tried to greedily take a deep breath, as he stumbled with his back against the table.

The dark headed man wasted no time in lunging after him. The table rocked as InuYasha was forced upon it. Hands dug into his neck, choking him with a ravenous force. He forced the boy to look into the frenzied wildness that his eyes harbored.

The gruff gentleman was mad. InuYasha squirmed, shifting all of his weight to knock the table down. His long leg fought with his jeans to wrap around the man's back. The dragging the rubber bottoms of his shoes, tore through the other man's shirt, cutting the soft spot of flesh that guarded his kidney.

The older man yelped, feeling InuYasha's stamp his feet against his spine. The impact on the floor was hefty, full of sound as they rolled. When one gained dominance, the other equalized them.

InuYasha had shut off the conscienceness that had made him curious, made him wonder why this devil had shown his face around here. He just had to get rid of him and protect his family. They sure as hell hadn't deserved any of this.

The other man had shot the Hojo kid when he came to see what was wrong. He didn't know if he was alive or not, and that weighed upon him to end this as quickly as possible.

InuYasha had temporarily freed himself long enough to move. He kicked the man's side, blotting his white shirt with a bloodied foot print. "Wha-t the hell do you want with them?" He breathed, scraping away his matted hair from his face.

The man lolled his head back and grinned as he caught the faint glimmer of his gun. "Hn, funny how someone as stupid as you hadn't figured that out." He seethed, grunting as he crawled in panic to the object that rested beneath the sofa.

InuYasha toppled over, hitting his head on the arm, fighting to get the weapon from his grasp. Every inch of him was electrified when the man snapped his hand like a whip. The muzzle was firmly pressed to InuYasha's slick forehead.

The man manuerved his body to a stand, never letting the hollow mouth leave his prey's flesh. InuYasha swallowed hard, as he was pinned upon his back on that musty old couch. The man above him gritted his teeth, blood caking, brown and dry, across his cheeks.

_This was it_.

Within that mellifluous moment, InuYasha closed his eyes. His heart was tearing at its cage though it could be freed. All of the efforts he had made to survive had submitted to his unknown man. The blood in his viens still curdled with heat, clotting the essence to sustain him.

The blood on his face itched beneath the intensity of the man's stare. His stubble cut against his skin, scraping his cheek as he leaned down, whispering in his ear. "I lost everything because of this family. I want them all dead. That girl of theirs was just like a secret in a keyhole."

His breath was heavy, sordid from the exhaustion.

InuYasha's alertness revived and involuntarily slung his elbow in the man's face, leaving the gun falling down his chest. He grabbed it, pointing it at the attacker.

"What the fuck did you do to Kagome?" InuYasha hissed, climbing over the couch to stand above the man, no hint of weakness in his voice. "She meant everything to these people. It may not be much of anything to you, but they're still looking for her."

The man scoffed, his white teeth wide in a Cheshire grin. "You know, you can't kill me. You have too much you want to ask me. I can see it in your eyes." He teased, mocking him with a sardonic apathy laden in his husky voice.

InuYasha knelt down, feet pinning the man's hands in place. "I sure as hell ain't going to let you live." He rasped, hair falling in a curtain around them. His breathing was steadier, fullier as he furrowed his brows at the man. "_Where is Kagome_?"

He asked again.

"None of you fucking pirates could ever be smart enough to figure out what's in front of you. Those people want her back so bad, but they don't know up from down. _They _knew what to do." He huffed, a grimace curling on his face.

InuYasha's thumb caressed the hammer of the gun, feeling the power it held. He licked his lips, "No, I want _you_ to tell me where she's at."

"Baby, it doesn't work that way." He replied, his eyes darkening like the night. "You see, her father took everything from me. I just want what's mine. It's just about as bad as that Ito boy's misery. I don't want to go mad and die in the wilderness." He grinned, a frenzy of distress hitting his eyes.

InuYasha had tensed, both hands shaking against the smooth handle on the gun. "What about the Ito boy?" He asked, his features twitching involuntarily.

The man adjusted his face against the muzzle that dug into his skin. "How the grand can fall." He sighed jaggedly. "He got to close to something that he shouldn't be involved in, and look what it got him. It's about as sad when I lost my life."

"So, you took someone else's?" InuYasha asked, trying to keep his facade from faltering. He _knew_ who he was. The bastard probably didn't know he was here, though. It was just like fate had weaved a crooked web, with all the pieces falling into the center.

Every inch of him was alive, confused by the riddling words that this man threaded through his ears. They sat in the shambles of a well put together life.

"Her father's dead." InuYasha finally wavered, feeling the man try to move.

"Ha! They told you that _he_ was dead." The man laughed snidely. "He's brought so much shame to this family, they had to run away to this shit stain of a town."

InuYasha shoved the gun closer to his forehead, he body pressing all of his weight forcefully upon him. "This is my fucking family you're fucking with now. _Where is she_?" He spat, saliva pressing pass his gritted teeth.

The man's tongue licked his cracked lips, tasting the iron that laced them. His mind had broken. It was just a matter of time before his rage set back in. "Why don't you go fuck yourself, cause I ain't telling you shit."

InuYasha clenched his jaw. He couldn't take it anymore. Closing his eyes, the pressure of his fingers clasped to the trigger.

The expulsion of air erupted into the room. Echoing in an ear-shattering bellow. Blood sprayed from the impact spot, feathering the walls and furniture with a red film. InuYasha had never killed a man before.

The lifeless body beneath him was still warm, eyes rolled back and open mouthed. He stood up slowly, dropping the gun across the floor. His hands weaved into his hair as he felt his skin line with gooseflesh.

The very core of his stomach pushed bile to his throat. It burned like he had swallowed acid. There was a silence that met him, focusing his attention on nothing in particular. He parted his mouth to make a sound, but nothing would come out.

His dark eyes scanned over the damage and debris. Teeth pressed down on his bloodied finger nails, chewing at the tips. What had he done?

What the hell had he done?

Sleep wouldn't come easy anymore. Maybe he should have just offed himself when Kikyo had died. None of this was happening. He wanted to scream, wanted to punch something. If he had gone through with it, it wouldn't have even mattered.

Kaede and Totosai's home and business was destroyed. A heavy, clammy hand wiped his face, and he faintly recalled the boy from earlier. With a sigh, he closed his eyes, walking past his first kill.

Kneeling down, he searched the pockets of the man's slacks. He found a paper-thin wallet and shoved it in his own pants pocket. Hobbling legs took him to the hallway, where his hands found the walls to stablize himself.

Outside of the front door, Hojo laid in a heap of snow. His blood melted the precipitation and stained the steps with a brown sludge. InuYasha turned him over to see his vacant face. He was cold, blue lipped.

It seemed like the man was cutting ties with all of the people that had seen him. In that moment, he collapsed upon his bottom. His long arms laid over his bent legs, relishing the cool air that cooled his skin.

The wallet fell from his pocket, and he picked it up sloppily. Parting an eye, he opened it and looked at the identification card. His blood froze. He pulled it close to his face, inspecting the address, the name.

_Kanagawa Bankotsu_

_9-3-6 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku_

_Tokyo, 170-3293_

_Kanagawa _had been the company that he had worked under for nearly ten years. His eyes furrowed, rubbing his thumb over the photo. He was gruff, smiling, genguinely happy in the photo.

It seemed like it depicted what _was_ instead of what _is._

If this man had taken Kagome, like all of the evidence pointed, she had to be in Tokyo, wouldn't she?

Slamming his head upon the wall, InuYasha finally let out a scream. It was feral, raw like his throat had been nothing but strips of meat. It was painful as his fist punched the floor, heaving out all of his oxygen.

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck." He muttered, trying his best to retain a shroud of humanity. "I have to get out of here." He said, trying to evade the pressure that held him fixed to that spot. He wanted to wash everything away.

There was no real way to ever explain what it had felt like to strike someone down. It was like it wrought madness in his rebuilt body. He had reformed from the terse nature of his life, and to what result?

This archaic rush of fury that bled out the very purity he had sewn?

How would he look Shippo in the eye again, let alone his parental figures. It didn't even occur to him that he would have to tell them to stay away from their home, for fear of anything else coming bump in the night.

Did this prove what kind of man he was? A murderer? If he had any strength left, he would have relented to the feeling that pressed beneath his eyes, trying their best to force out moisture.

In the end, he soothed himself by laying on his back in the tub. The water was red around him, swimming with the smell of death and infection. He couldn't move. The comatose dream was no more of a reality than the images he saw at night.

He cleaned himself up the best he could and redressed.

The bodies bloated in the house had to be removed. And, as he stood by the door, he looked towards the sea and its open arms.

He would bury Hojo, but that Bankotsu was going to be fed to the hungry mouthes that rested below the bay's rolling facade.

**AN:**

**Turns out that Bankotsu wasn't the big baddy after all.**


	7. White Rabbit

**AN:**

**The story tells itself.**

**I'm completely submerged into this world, and I wanted to address that the loose ends **_**will **_**all come together in the following chapters. **

**I hope that you enjoy this one. **

**Chapter 7**

_**The White Rabbit**_

The night fell, masking the earthly bodies within it's firm fingers. Every shadow was blacker than the flesh that moved along the ashen ground. The spray of the ocean batted against the shore, lapping at the corrosive sand.

The diminished sense of security was washed away with the high tide that rolled over the stones and snowy caps around thistle thrushes.

InuYasha stood, smoking his first cigarette in almost two years. The smoke coiled out of his mouth, catching the breeze that ripped it across the air. There were no stars, no hope hanging in the blanketed sky.

Bakotsu had slipped passed the ravenous water's mouth, being gobbled up by the foam and busy current. The moon could draw him to the deepest trench that laid in between the where the man stood and hell for all cared.

His free hand smoothed over his black coat, feeling the aches that laid beneath the bustling fabic. All of his hair was dancing, creasing his face with its gentle touch. He'd been thankful that no one had seen him drag Bankotsu to the bay.

It was just a matter of time before he had to talk to Kaede. Hojo's parents were surely going to start asking questions, and his answers were heavily crushing him beneath their weight.

What was he supposed to say about the whole ordeal?

No one would believe him that Bankotsu had just shown up out of the blue, for a reason he still couldn't grasp. The fact that he had known his story made his blood run cold. There was a passing moment of serenity, but was quickly chased away with the sound of the tide, crying out in a ghostly howl.

No matter how much he cleansed himself, there was no way to free the binds of humanity, which had slipped through his fingers. People were murderers, yes.

Yet, as he flicked his cigarette into the water, he thought of the rage he had felt. The listless loss in every move he'd made. He had capsized like a small vessal in a hurricane. It was strange, looking down at his once innocent hands.

If he could have blamed them for the action, he would have. But, what good would that have done? It was his mind that had broken, shattered to a point beyond control. It made him doubt that he could take care of the boy he sent away, let alone himself.

The facade he had constructed was slowly chipping away. Every thought darted back to the man's expression before he pulled the trigger.

He was so hysterical that it would have been hard to think that his life was flashing before his eyes. When Kikyo had died the moments before were slow and methodical, as if she was pondering something numbing.

Bankotsu hadn't thought he was going to actually go through with it.

It was defeaning how loud the memory was, going off in his head like a grenade. He cupped his head, stomping the ground in an attempt to make it disappear.

So badly did he want to feel nothing. People felt nothing when they killed innocent people. At least the derranged ones, with the miscontrued channels.

Why couldn't he have been like them?

His face was aging, he could feel it. Within the confines of his head, he knew that if he didn't slow his depression, he would join the lost souls in the watery gravesite.

InuYasha's fingers ran across his wounded face, feeling the stubble grow like bristles. His mouth was dry, sticky with the taste of nicotine.

The taste was still far better than the vomit that had spilled when he buried Hojo near the edge of town. There had been a bushy area where a tori gate stood, and he thought it proper to bury the innocent boy somewhere sacred to his home.

He saw his neighbors on his trip back, but none acknowledged anything wrong. They'd probably assumed someone shot a wild animal, as was common in the area near the forest thicket.

People often caught rabbits, small animals like boar, it wasn't that they were much smarter to think otherwise. Aside from Kagome going missing, this shanty was nothing more than a bare civilization.

Hell, InuYasha could have died in the middle of the street and no one find anything wrong. His musings were curt, guiding him home with silence. When he returned all of the lights were on and his stomach dropped.

He eased his hand on the gun in his pocket, and lowered his head shamefully.

Easing the creaky door open, he saw a woman standing with her back to him. She was crying, her voice sounded shrill like a million strangled violins.

He closed his eyes, fairing that he couldn't take much more when she dropped to her knees, head planting in her hands.

His throat closed, keeping his breath hidden in his lungs. There was something frantic about that moment when she heard him creeping up on her.

Her feet were bleeding, wearing only one shoe. Her body was red, hair mussed and covered with leaves.

The sound of his heart thumped in his ears, leaving the nothingness to overwhelm him. He had almost made it to the end of the hallway, guiding himself gingerly to avoid making any sound.

His tired eyes closed as he allowed himself to breathe. A hard swallow stretched his throat and bore into his chest.

The woman raised her head slowly, shaking from what appeared to be dread. Every inch of her was quivering as she brought herself to turn her head.

InuYasha pressed his mouth into a tight line, unmoving and stoic. He prepared himself for her to run, to scream, anything to draw attention to her presence.

Instead, she suppressed her crying long enough to look at him. Her eyes were welled with tears, making the edges of her eyes reflect the silver of her eyes.

InuYasha's hand absently pulled the gun from his pocket, shucking it against the floor in disbelief. His mouth wanted to move, and so did his body.

His brain could barely process the woman standing up, taking steps backwards to the wall. Her long hair hung about her waist, coiling around her securely.

A moment passed, each searching the other as though they were fleeting beings, being swept along a celestial current.

The only words he could formulate were the erubescent at best. He could barely bring his body to function as he took her in. She was the ethereal woman that watched over him, that all of this was for.

"_Kagome_..."

Her eyes were just about as ragged as the rest of her. She held her hands to her chest, finding the courage to speak up for herself. "What did you to them?" Every word was waving, breathy as she tried to calm herself.

InuYasha shook his head wildly, raising his hands in defense. He tried to step closer to her, only to have her finally let out the scream he knew she was holding in.

"_Where are they?_" She whailed, finding anything and everything that belonged to her grandparents littered on the floor. Her tiny hands grabbed a broken plant pot and threw it at him.

InuYasha attempted to move out of the way, only to be the victim of more debris. "I didn't do shit to them."

"You're a liar!" She screamed, shellshock completely overwhelming her. Her fingers felt like fire and her bones rattled. It was a miracle the girl could even stand on those nervous legs.

InuYasha huffed, trying to block her blows. "_Will you listen to me_?" He barked, getting irritated with her explosive outburst. She had every right to be upset, seeing her home in shambles. She didn't to calm down long enough for him to empty himself of questions.

He could believe that she was there. Everything that he had heard about her had been like a Grimm Fairytale. She was a mystery, and he wanted to expose her secrets.

Kagome flailed, her make up smeared across her cheeks. Her face was rubedinous, roseated from sheer pressure beneath her skin. He hadn't the faintest idea what she had replied with as she finally broke down.

The woman panicked, knocking things off the counter before she attempted to run out the sliding door. InuYasha bounded over the crumpled mess of broken furniture and shelving to the kitchen.

She fought with the door, jerking it both ways before it opened. The cold air slapped her exposed skin as she escaped. The man's long legs forced him after her, finding her struggling to run against the snow.

Kagome was nothing more than a silhouette in the night, and when he found her, his body tackled her to the ground. He rolled on top of her, pressing his hand over her mouth, which she had tried so profusely to bite.

It seemed that whatever she had been through left her a shell of her former self, from what he had heard from her family.

Leaves crunched beneath them as she struggled against the wet ground. He shifted his legs on either side of her to cage her, keep her from escaping. Leaning down, he stared into those vibrant gray eyes, that looked as clear as rain.

InuYasha's long hair draped across them, reflecting the dim light from the house. She looked mortified. Her heart pounded so ferociously, he could feel it on his own chest.

He shushed her, begging her to calm down and _listen_. When she finally stopped thrashing against him, he slid his hand away from her wet mouth.

She panted like a fish out of water, staring into the man's rugged face.

"What did you do to them?" Kagome hissed, low in a failed attempt to growl.

InuYasha's hand knit beside her head, staring at her oddly for a moment before he answered. He couldn't help but admire what he had longed to see for himself. She was a fiery woman, like Old Baba had said.

"I live here." He said plainly, "They're at the hospital, alright? I've been taking care of them, because they took me in." He told her, "They've been looking for you."

"I don't believe you. " Kagome scowled, tying to buck him off of her. "No one was looking for me." Her chest heaved beneath the man as she never tore her eyes from his. His warm was probably the only thing keeping her from freezing to death the cold night.

InuYasha could have slapped her. He pinched the bridge of his nose, and let out a sigh onto her skin. "Look woman, there's not much I can do about what happened. I ended up here with no place to go and they told me about you, I've been trying to find out where the fuck you've been so they'd be happy."

Kagome's eyes narrowed considerably, no warmth laid within them. "How dare you say that to me. You killed them, didn't you?" Her accusation stung him so violently that he let his grip on her fall slack.

The gunshot resounded in his head again, leaving him breathless as he looked away from her. He felt ill.

"I knew it." The woman howled. "I'm going to kill you." She cried, feeling her body shudder again. She wanted to move, wanted to run somewhere safe. It was impossile to remove his weight from her, she didn't have the strength.

InuYasha collected himself, rubbing the side of his face. "Kaede-baba and Old Totosai are at the hospital, if you didn't hear me the first time."

"You'd tell me anything I wanted to hear so I would trust you." Kagome spat, wrestling with him weakly.

The leggy man sat upright and relented to throwing his hands up. "You don't know what I went through tonight, okay? I fucking shot a man that came into that house." He pointed at the inn with distain. "I'd never even shot a gun before today, I can barely process what the fuck is going on in my own head, let alone yours!"

Kagome stiffened. Her teeth nipped at her lower lip as though she was deep in thought. Those peculiar eyes scowered the snow, as if it would answer her questions. Everything was in disarray.

Her thoughts, her home, her life up until now... It was all so jumbled up in this nest of lies, captivity.

She couldn't let herself believe him as she felt him remove his body, taking his precious warmth with him. When she looked up, there was a calloused hand offering its help. Nervously, she sat her body upright and hesitantly took the hand in front of her.

InuYasha pulled her weight with his arm, gripping to his bruised ribcage. His expression was blank as he released her, putting his hands into his pockets. Pulling out the wallet, he flung it at her.

"I assume that you know him." The man rasped, reaching for a cigarette.

Kagome closed her eyes after she looked at the indentification card. A sinking relief wrapped around her, letting her tense muscles ease themselves. "Bankotsu..." She sighed.

Her thin hand wrung across her face before biting back the urge to scream. The skin on her throat tightened as her teeth clenched together, "I hope that that fucker is dead. After what he's done to me." Her voice was menacing, dripping with a satisfaction she didn't know she could feel.

Her nails dug into the photo, clawing away the dumb grin on his smug face. She hated him with every molecule in her being. A shudder hit her, making her wild with emotion.

InuYasha swallowed, relishing in the smoke that hit his throat. "Is that why you're here?" He asked solemnly, watching her eyes raise darkly behind her bangs. He couldn't place the emotion that filled him, but it was smothering.

Kagome's breath danced in the air, looking at him curiously. "I-I-I was forced to come with him, and when he left today, I thought that he would be back. When he never showed up, I ran." Her eyes closed, as if remembering that feeling of freedom. "I _ran_ for at least two hours.I had to get away from him."

InuYasha removed his coat, handing it to her. She looked startled, but took it delicately. He helped wrap it around her, though his mind raced around her family, his adopted child, and the woman he had scared half to death.

"I'll help you with whatever you need," InuYasha said, starting to head back to the house, leaving the girl mute in his coat. She looked at him as though he had sprouted another head.

She still didn't know what the hell was going on. How in hell was she supposed to trust him after coming home to _this_?

It had been months since she had even see the outside world. Bankotsu had kept her stuffed away like a prisoner, which admittedly, she was. It had been a miracle that she had even gotten out alive.

The past year was so understated by the world around her. It struck her blind with rage to know that others could live their lives while she suffered.

Her memories were like a black hole, inhaling the world she had remembered. She was isolated, didn't know how to interact with society anymore. He had been everything to her. He protected, guarded her from any harm, other than his own.

Now that he was gone, did that necessarily mean that she was free?

No. It didn't. She frowned.

Her large eyes watched InuYasha leaned against the counter inside. What kind of man would even remotely think of helping someone he had just met?

She watched him as though she'd never seen a human being. There was something inside of him that she could see that was untapped. Her heart was aching at the very idea of standing on this familiar ground.

Everything was melting.

Everything was still and stagnant.

The blood, the fresh death that lingered...

There was nothingness.

Wretching a sigh, the girl's hands cupped her face, standing there as the snow started to fall. She couldn't stay there.

_They would find her._

Bankotsu surely thought that they would cough up a nickel and dime for her safety but she knew better. The man that had spawned her, only thought of her as pawn.

She'd been used, dismantled by the very essence of hell itself.

The sharpness of her nails dragged from her temples to her chin. She'd been one of the lucky ones. Most kidnapping victims never made it past the first few days. She had managed to lie, to stagger through her existence this long.

There was no reason to waste what precious time she had left.

The will in her legs allowed her diminutive body to move into the warmth of shelter. Her nerves ticking as she observed InuYasha attempted to clean some of the mess from the room.

He didn't say another word to her, letting her bask in her thoughts. She supposed it had been a blessing when she locked herself in the bathroom.

Her reflection, which she hadn't seen in some time, looked at her as though she was hollow. Her eyes had no shine, nothing in them. Her skin was pallid, marred with age beyong her young years.

For now, she merely turned the water on and sat with the shower nozzle pouring across her cold skin.

How long would it take her to feel normal again? Would she ever?

The woman asked herself, finding herself crying into her knees.

Outside, InuYasha sat with his back to the bathroom door. He listened to her voice garble and blame herself for the way things had been. She sounded a lot like he had when his life drowned him in the circumstance.

He tried to wrap his head around today. Faintly, it didn't seem possible to grasp the things that swayed to and fro. There was too much to comprehend.

The only thing he could focus on was this wily song bird had flown back home. His eyes raised to the photo on the wall and placed her voice to the photo. That girl seemed to move, running with laughter, kicking the waves with her toes.

That was the girl that he wanted to know.

His hands ran through his hair, brushing back his bangs. He could have fallen asleep knowing that she was safe. It felt like all of those hours wondering about her, had made his heart swell with relief.

Tonight there would be no sleep. It wasn't something he had expected anyway, but he had to make sure she didn't go crazy with emotion. Losing her after he just met her would be the final blow.

Kaede-baba and Totosai would probably die if they knew she had returned.

Tomorrow would be strange, foreign for her as the day that he had ended up here. The blood caked under his fingernails would never let him forget what he had done for her.

When the time was right, she would have to lead him to the rabbit hole. There was no wonderland here. There as no love to be found within the dishelved walls.

Eden couldn't flourish without the scriptures being scribed by the right hands to rebirth it.

Lolling his head back, he faintly heard the water shut off.

It certainly wasn't going to be any greener tonight.

**AN: **

**FINALLY, RIGHT?**

**This is the turning point for the entire story, so bear with me through the transition.**

**I hope that this has been satisfactory and that you guys enjoyed it. I LOVE this chapter. **

**Thank you to my reviewers and readers. **

**-Jiru**


	8. Neon Tokyo

**Thank you to my wonderful reviewers and readers!**

**I've received some very exciting and warming reviews for the last couple of chapters, and I cherish them. Thank you so much for the feedback everyone.**

**There's information at the bottom of this chapter about Stockholm Syndrome, if you don't know what it is already. If there's ever anything you'd like answered, feel free to ask me. **

**And, to answer a question from ninjamidori; Yes. He did - most of it. **

**SexyxAngelx09 - No worries here. :)**

**Thanks to Anime Lady PIMP, Child of Dreamz (thank you for such a lovely review), NiceStories (for your sweet comments), Duke-of-Spades (some serious madness), Morrigan Fey, La Pisces. llonaBliss, Pokahydee - Nekoyasha**

**Chapter 8**

**The Neons Over Tokyo.**

The Shinkansen's wheels had eventually lulled the restless souls to sleep, basking them in a momentary ease. Thawing snow clung to the windows, leaving Sango's weary eyes to look upon the familiar city, covered with lively lights.

Shippo had roused some time ago, excitedly delighted by the neons that flickered like fireworks across his window sill. The world around him was new and capitvating. The colors crossed his pale face, adorning it with a vigor he hadn't felt in months.

Sango couldn't help but indulge in his giddiness. Her mind had wandered into the dark recesses for the duration of the trip, leaving this one moment to enjoy. She was back in the city that brought her so much misery.

Yet, in that Rockwell sentiment, she had found what she was looking for. The boy beside her had long forgotten his woes, leaving him shucking his hands and squealing lightly, as not to bother the other passengers.

He felt a surge of energy as the capsule train skidded to a halt. The evening was ready to engulf him with sensory overload. Sango's only concern was the disillusion he would have. This was magical, like capturing a mythical beast.

Gathering up the one item she had managed to bring, she grabbed Shippo's hand, tucking him back into his warm clothes. She, however, had to make an emergency stop to any store that was open.

Her savings was going to be decimated by the end of the week, she sighed. Waiting patiently as they could, they held tight to one another as they walked down the aisle. Buyo was tucked in the front of Shippo's coat, just as InuYasha had carried him so many times.

Sango's lips pressed in a tight line, looking down at the boy. If there had been any way of contacting him, she would have done so a thousand times over. There was dread washing over her as her foot hit the platform.

However, that little boy ripped at the seams. He instantly buckled beneath the flashing lights and busy noise. He'd never seen so many people in one place. There had to have been over a hundred people standing on that platform.

Most of them were jovial, chatting patiently. It was all Sango could do to keep from screaming at the hysterical reaction her body had managed to muster.

Closing her eyes, she kept calm, walking down the steps gingerly. She was freezing. Her thin, long-sleeved shirt did nothing in the way of warming her. "We've got to get me a new coat!" She chattered, receiving a confused look from the boy.

"What happened to yours?" He asked, realization striking the woman that the boy had _nothing_.

Lolling her head back, she sighed into the hazy steam that littered the street, which was left over from the hot gears of the train. "I forgot our bags in the car." She groaned in defeat. "We need to get to a store before they close for the night."

Shippo found an odd energy seeping into his stomach. He wasn't sure if he was happy anymore, but he was? The question lingered as they walked down the path from Tokyo Station.

The streets were still packed, lined with girls standing and chatting in front of shops. The chimes of cellphones bleeped and rang, making Sango's head split open. Part of her was glad to only be here a week. There was something endearing about being surrounded by near nothingness. It was something she'd nary trade for anything.

As they meandered down the bustling street, the woman's thoughts drifted back to the events from the afternoon. She couldn't get the look of fear on InuYasha's face out of her mind. No matter how hard she tried to shake the feeling of doubt from her head, it crept back up, hanging like a noose.

Her thin hand wiped across her face as she listened to Shippo ranting. Her patience with him impressed her. None of it had been his fault, but sometimes, anger got the better of everyone.

It had taken her a few tries, but a smile pressed across her mouth. Seeing the auburn haired boy's genuine happiness, she melted into a half-hearted easiness. "Look," She pointed towards a clothing shop that lined the Shibuya-ku street. "Let's try there."

Shippo said something to Buyo along the lines of "I can't believe we're actually here."

When he followed Sango into the shop, he could barely move. The lights were brightly shining down on him, basking him in their flourescent glow. Everything was crisp, pristine in comparison to what he was used to back home.

"Sango, should I even be in here?" Shippo asked, eyes catching the light that blinded him.

Sango scoffed, picking through the technically designed coats. "Why would you ever say something like that? This place is for anyone." She cooed, trying to sympathize with how he felt.

The boy nodded lightly, looking at the racks of womens clothing. Everything was fancy, lacquered with neatly placed tags and glossy finishes on the hangers. It overwhelmed him as he and Buyo clung to Sango's leg.

Absently, she ran a hand through his hair, plucking out a grey peacoat. It was thick and warm as she slid it on, sinking into the arms of the fabric. It would do, she sighed.

Slipping it back off, she headed towards the center of the shop. There was a small thrush of children's clothing tucked away to the side. Shippo furrowed his brows when he saw the area they had discovered. "Where are my things?" He asked, nervous to hear her answer.

"I told you, baby, I forgot them in the car." She said, kneeling down to his level. "I'm going to get you a few things, okay?" Her voice was low, soothing as she grabbed his tiny hands.

The boy looked her in the eye, searching for the truth. "Sango, where's InuYasha?"

The woman went slack, pulling him towards her as she hunkered down on the glossy wooden floor. "He's coming, baby." Her eyes closed for a moment, praying that he was alright. "We're gonna have fun, so don't worry. Let's just get you some things and go get some food in that tummy."

_Being strong_ was something she learned in all of her years working at the hospital. It was all a facade. No matter how much you suffered, or ached for someone else, you always put on your best face and rolled across the current.

It seemed to appease Shippo well enough that he complied and sat down while she picked through clothes. She peeked into his collar, the back of his pants, even checked his shoe size.

After they had decided on the items, she lead him to the register. Nervously, she reached into her purse. The first thing her fingers touched was the wallet that InuYasha had thrown at her, and her hand pressed against her forehead.

The woman at the counter offered her some water, but she declined as she merely handed her a credit card from the depths of her bag.

"Shippo, let's get some food and we'll go see Miss Ayame," Sango said, waving his arm back and forth. As soon as she stepped out of the door, she let go of him, digging through her bag to put on the new coat.

Shippo popped off the tag when they made to a lonesome ramen cart, selling the day's last stock. The boy had clenched his jaw, so excited that he shuddered. It was quick, simple and gave her ample amount of time to get to her destination.

The boy ate his fill while they walked, heading further into the clutches of the lively city. They talked about this and that, and different places they would go. It hadn't been too far of a walk before the boy grew drowsy.

Sango had been sore when she picked him up, every step from there on out feeling like she was carrying a sack of stones. In the distance, she found the familiar highrise that housed her childhood friend.

Relief washed over her, taking the tired child inside the slick, black building. He was hardly awake when he inspected the golden interior, and plush furniture that rested in the lobby. It looked like wealthy people lived inside those walls, and he envied them.

There were paintings, crystal decorations and lighting, around them. It washed his skin with a warm glow as they got into the elevator, being whisked away to the unknown.

The unknown, that was something that those damned to the disconnected town had felt envelope them. The only sound heard for hours was the hush of a broom, and scrubbing of Brillo pads across the floor. It smelled of bleach and stark and burning cleaner.

Nothing was removing the scene that replayed like a skip in a film. InuYasha's memory was broken as a record. The draft that beseiged him with the disconcerted reminder that he was a murderer, inhuman.

The thought made him scowl and scrap the floor harder, more violently. The watery mess on the floor reflected an impression of him as he grunted. His efforts were shit, he thought miserably, stopping his motions only to roll up his sleeves.

He hadn't seen Kagome since she locked herself in her room, whailing like a wounded animal. When she'd caught him lingering in her room, half asleep, she'd hit him several times and screamed until she couldn't any longer.

It was then he saw the cuts that licked at her cheeks. They looked like the handy work of branch switches and the impact of falling down against pavement. Her mouth had been bruised and bloodied. Even so, he mused, she was beautiful.

Somewhere in this heaping mess of death and confusion, he still found solace in that. She humbled him, even with her frantic state of being. He wondered if she had even slept properly in the year that she'd been gone.

He knew that he hadn't, and still didn't on occasion. Hell, he knew for a fact that sleep was a fleeting prospect tonight. It was like this inn was going to collapse upon itself in shame of what had happened.

Such a sincere place was desecrated by a fucking crazed man, and a fight with a woman that he barely knew. Kaede-baba would lose her mind, had she not already, if she saw the place like this.

There was no way of fixing it, completely. Nor, he sighed, was there remotely enough time to complete the task before they came home. Closing his eyes, he sank back on his bottom, brushing a grimey hand through his hair.

The leggy man curled his legs to his chest tiredly, relishing in the draft that crept in through the open door. He was tired, so ungodly tired.

Absently, he let his arms fall across his legs as he shimmied his back to the couch. He was perched, trying to stay awake. All of his will had left him well past the point of exhaustion, and his mind had finally begun to slow.

Little did he know, Kagome was standing at the end of the hallway, hands curled around the corner. She had listened to him cleaning and curses himself and everyone else. It was a defense of hers to hide, being as silent as possible.

Nervously, she found the courage to shuffle through the kitchen and stand near the counter. The man turned his head, nose still tucked into his arm. He swallowed hard, trying to figure out what to say.

His heart faltered, skin reddening like a school boy. He was about to speak up, when she lowered her head and let out a sigh. "Thank you." The woman smiled awkwardly, her emotions staining her eyes. "Thank you for trying to find me, and what you did today. I don't think I can face Baba and Jiji, yet."

InuYasha searched her face, inspecting every curve. Her voice was so pacifying, like a soft breeze. She sounded so much different than she had earlier.

"It's fine. I have to get this cleaned up before they get home tomorrow. I'm probably going to be homeless again." InuYasha laughed in defeat.

Kagome's hands began to shake as she took slow, unsure steps closer to him. It was like she was trying to identify him. Those eyes of hers seemed to read his very soul, and everything in between as she parted her mouth.

She wanted so badly to tell him that she was sorry for trying to injure him, but she was still leery.

InuYasha adjusted himself with his arms laying across his chest. She was wearing one of his long sleeve shirts. It was like a dress on her small frame, he noticed. If things had been different, he would have been happy she had done such a thing.

It was hard to be a noble person when his thoughts drifted into the gutter. He wanted to kick himself. After all that she'd been through, that was something that he couldn't even dream of doing to her.

The man's body tensed up as she stepped closer, resting only a couple of feet away from him. Kagome looked like a skiddish animal, about to be chased down by a ravenous wolf.

Defensively, she wrung her hands together in front of her chest. Her vision focused on her feet, and the side of the man's denim covered legs. "I'm sorry for the way I treated you. I-I-I j-j-ust can't do this anymore." Kagome choked, the surging pressure of her upset completely ate her alive.

Her chest forced the muscle to tense as she grimaced, trying to hold in her cries. She was broken apart. The man that she had spent the past year of her life with was dead. She had hated him, hated him with the last fiber of her being.

Still, she had depended on him for everything. She'd played the game, gotten close, slept with him, let him abuse her, anything to keep herself alive.

Stockholm Syndrome had kicked in after the first couple of months, and still lingered in the newness of her temporary freedom. The confusion of losing a person so close to you, regardless of relation, leaves you distraught and more confused by the abscence.

Her captor had been a demon, a burning thorn in her side, but without him, she felt like nothing. Dropping to her knees, she sniveled still fighting the erractic cries that tried to spill out of her.

Instinctively, InuYasha extended a hand. He would have pulled her into him, but he refrained as to not frighten her away. The girl looked up at him curiously, searching his palm as though it was a trick.

After a moment, she closed her eyes, placing a quivering hand in his. He felt sturdy, secure as he slowly moved her closer. Her head stayed down, staring vacantly at the wet spots on the floor.

"Will you tell me what happened to you?" InuYasha whispered, laying her head on his chest. She jerked upon the contact, but relented as his arms loosely fell around her.

"I don't want to remember." Kagome said, hands searching the rising and falling of his chest. Her fingers curled within his shirt, aching from the very last inch of her soul. "I don't know w-why I'm even d-d-doing this. I don't know you."

InuYasha shook his head lightly, staring at the broken tables and pictures on the floor. His tongue ran along the length of his lip, idly brushing his fingers in her hair. "You don't have to tell me. I just want to know why the hell this happened to you. I've already killed a man, why not another?" He scoffed bitterly.

Kagome shook her head, basking in the way he smelled. Bankotsu had smelled like high priced cologne, sweet and stout. It made her sick. "Please, just stay with me for now. I need this." Her eyes were blank, inhaling the soothing smell she had found.

InuYasha lolled his head back against the couch, "Do you trust me at all?" He asked, knowing that it was a premeditated inquiry. There was no way that she would, but she seemed like she did enough to seek refuge.

Kagome scoffed so softly, he could barely hear the breath she took. "No. What else can happen to me tonight?" She said, her legs coiling closer to feel his warmth. "I just want to make it through tonight."

The man relaxed and grabbed a discarded afgan. Wrapping it around her, he rested his head ontop of hers, guarding her from the monsters that she feared. "I promise I won't let anything happen to you tonight."

Kagome didn't believe it, but she stayed still. She couldn't take the solitary arms of her room, doing nothing to soothe her. The only person she could run to was him. It may have been stupid, but she was willing to take that risk, to just not be alone.

It wasn't long before her tired eyes closed, sinking beneath the scent of patchouli and fennel that engulfed her. Her guard stood alert, barely awake, but enough to watch over her as she had done so many times in his dreams.

Part of him was selfishly keeping her close for his own reasons, but he couldn't let her fend for herself. He was just a man after all. There was nothing in him that was any different than the other.

She smelled like apples and some sort of blossom. It was astounding that the woman was laying in his arms.

The rest of that night, InuYasha held her close, keeping even the faintest of insects from getting near her. He coveted her, protected her from the nightmares that were following her to her slumber.

One day, he hoped that she would be well and restored. For now, he was just content, sitting within the rubble of the home she had loved.

The tidal wave of the morning would be washing over them soon, leaving behind the murky grit of the night to sift through. Every answer would have to be panned, like finding gold amonst the mud.

"Due time, due time, that's what the world says to those weary travelers searching for the answers that they can never find." InuYasha said in a rasp, hazily watching the snow fall gracefully.

Such contrast to the violence fate and thrust upon him.

It was nice to know that there was a simplicity in the aftermath.

**AN; There wasn't a whole lot going on in this chapter, I just needed a good breeze way. I wanted to establish a need between InuYasha and Kagome, and I'm sorry if it was too soon, but considering that she had Stockholm Syndrome, I thought it as appropriate.**

**Since Wikipedia is on SOPA BlackOut for 24 hours, I had to gather a less thorough definition of what SS is.**

**The Stockholm Syndrome comes into play when a captive cannot escape and is isolated and threatened with death, but is shown token acts of kindness by the captor. It typically takes about three or four days for the psychological shift to take hold.**

**"A strategy of trying to keep your captor happy in order to stay alive becomes an obsessive identification with the likes and dislikes of the captor which has the result of warping your own psyche in such a way that you come to sympathize with your tormenter." **

**Also, as a side note to this;**

**The captor often is violent, brainwashing, and strings the victim along . They let the captives eat, sleep, bathe, **_**live**_** and the detainees often become attached to their captors.**

**In this case, Kagome had spent a year with Bankotsu. Within that year of being attached to that person, there is still that experience of loss and utter confusion when they are gone.**

**She DOES feel remorse over his loss, even though she hates him. So, this is something that she will have to over come in this complete moment of loss. **

**Thank you to everyone that has reviewed and supported this story.**


	9. Puzzle

**This chapter was a pain in the ass to write. This chapter is going to be a little different, and a bit longer due to heavy dialogue. A lot of things are going to surface, so pay attention! Haha.**

**Thank you again for the wonderful reviewers.**

**NiceStories; I find myself doubting my ability to carry a story, and feel that if there isn't constantly something going on, that I'll lose interest and so will the reader. I normally only write short stories and oneshots to prevent that, but this story means so much to me that it's very much appreciated to hear such kind words. Thank you so much, as always. **

**ninjamidori; I know! Things are going to be changing for everyone, soon.**

**Anime Lady PIMP; I've seen so many documentaries on the subject that it's mind blowing how that happens. But, in all honesty, the people that survive with the attachment, are lucky in comparision to some.**

**It's a horrible catch 22. D:**

**crim5on cr0w; thank you sweetheart! I try to update at least once a day. Sometimes, I can get a couple of chapters posted.**

**I'm rushing to get through the next couple of chapters to get to a treat for you guys!**

**Chapter 9**

_**Puzzle Pieces.**_

_Dreams._

They were supposed to hang the moon, not smear bloody prints across the stretching of your sleep. No. They were nightmarish, orchistrating attacks in the lull of supposed peace.

Yet, as they made her eyes stir, rubbing them with the backs of her hands, she felt at ease. She awoke where she had closed her eyes, tucked beneath InuYasha's chin. Her heart echoed in her ears, as she inspected his sleeping face.

He'd probably stopped his mind from running at its steady pace long enough to breathe. Every wrinkle in his skin told a story, a rugged, work-worn tale of love and loss. She admired the heavenly pallor of his hair, gingerly silking her finger through the long cord that ran across his chest.

The morning light peeked through door, warming their skin with its golden hands. How she longed to never move, to just exist as she had. That was all a memory, locked up tightly in the back of her head.

The mess around them didn't seem as bad now that there was morning to chase away the demons, which the night had brought. Kagome furrowed her brows, knitting her hands into her savior's shirt. She clung to him like a child, hoping that she could find what little trust he offered.

The movement made him stir, as he looked down upon her dark crown, feeling her breathing out of synch with his. His long arm draped around her, making her flinch.

A wince creased across her face, as she hid within him. She didn't speak, didn't find the strength to move any more than she already had.

InuYasha let out a sigh and gently ran a thumb across her back. He was trying to wake himself from the sore, groggy grasp sleep still had on him.

"You feeling okay, Kagome?" The man's tired voice rumbled. His eyes fell on the cleaning still left to be done and he grimaced.

Kagome shook her head softly, "I don't want to be here, InuYasha. I can't see my family." She said, hoarse and vacant. "I-I want to, but not like this."

A frown hit his face, "You know you should. They've been holding on for you. That's the only thing that kept them going." He said sternly, as if trying to coax her into being strong.

The girl wanted to cry, but couldn't force the tears to come. She was drier than an old well, devoid of moisture which once was rampant.

"I can't, I need a few days. This is so strange. I can't understand it." Kagome said, straightened herself, removing her body from his.

Part of him wanted to grab her, pull her back to him. She fit against his body like she should and it pained him to watch her push herself to her cracked feet.

A sigh escaped him and he followed her lead, save for his movement was far more lethargic. "What are we going to do about the house? Kaede-baba will be back soon. She always comes back before noon." InuYasha said, rubbing the kinks out of his neck.

Kagome hugged herself, circulating with anxiety. Her gray eyes were wide, searching for an answer. She knew this place wasn't really their home. It was a reminder of things that wouldn't change.

Loss and escape had lead them here. Their lives hadn't started here, they sure as hell deserved better after all they had been through.

Clenching her fists, Kagome ran into the kitchen, flipping on the eye on the gas stove. She jerked the knob on the oven, flinging it open to fill the space with the familiar, pungent odor.

InuYasha stiffened. It only took him a moment before he registered what she was trying to do, and flung himself over the counter top. His landing was unstable, sending him rolling off the sink pit onto the floor.

The girl was beside herself, lost in whatever sense of justification she had. Her hands frantically searched a drawer, looking for matches when InuYasha's hands clamped down on her arms.

He turned the girl to face him, shaking her forcefully. "What the fuck do you think you're doing, Kagome?" His voice growled as she kicked the oven door shut with her foot.

He wanted her to make eye contact so badly that he could slap her. What in hell made anyone think of burning down their home? It may have been what he had gone through that made him so intense, but it still didn't change that she had lost her mind.

Kagome forced him off of her as she let out a strangle cry. She flipped off the oven, slamming her hands down onto the counter. "What the hell am I supposed to do?"

InuYasha was baffled. "Do you think I have any more answers than you do? I have no idea what's going on! You just magically show up back here and I'm supposed to know what to do with you?" He asked, his hands contorting in front of his body.

Kagome turned to face him, mouth ajar with contempt. "After what I've beent through, you really think I care if you're here or not? I don't even know you and you expect to think that you're going to take care of me like I'm a child?"

Rage, _blind rage_ boiled beneath the man's skin. This woman was going to be the death of him. He was about to scream at her, holding it back just enough to show the violence in his eyes. He had longed for the moment to see her, basked in the innocence he had dreamt she had...

But, _this _was who she was now.

Kagome was testing him. Her eyes narrowed on him as though he would submit to her, and when he didn't, fear creased the lining of her stomach with its nauseating waves.

"Look," InuYasha gritted, "I don't have time to play these games. I am _not_ Bankotsu and I am _not_ the person who did these things to you. I am just living here because of your family. You aren't anything like I imagined you to be." The man spat, recoiling at the intensity of his words.

He was being callous. He knew that being brash with her wasn't helping the situation get any better.

The look of hurt that struck her face was evidence enough to prove that point.

Her hands fumbled with the knob on the stove, turning it off. She didn't want him to look at her any longer. She'd tried to move past him only for his hand to latch on to her wrist. The touch had been gentle, has if merely keeping her from running off and hurting herself in the mess.

Kagome's eyes nervously met his and he calmed himself. "Are you hungry?" He asked her softly, noticing how waifish her frame was. She reminded him so much of himself it hurt.

The girl slipped her hand passed his fingers and cupped it within her own. "Yes," She said, "I'm starving. I haven't really eaten much lately." She smiled sadly, before she heard a familiar ring that made her blood run cold.

InuYasha looked to the living room where he and Bankotsu had tussled. A light flickered on and off, like a signal. Kagome looked up and him and pattered across the room to find it. He followed her, looking down at the couch.

With a heavy grunt, InuYasha skidded it across the floor, finding a cellphone crying to be answered. Kagome's mouth twitched beneath the weight of her frown. That device carried evil within the wiring.

InuYasha knelt down and picked it up, watching until the backlight dimmed. He slid it open, looking at the missed call. It didn't have any name attached to it, just a series of numbers.

Kagome looked up at him, her teeth chewing at her lip. "You have his wallet, don't you?" She asked.

InuYasha nodded, scrolling through all of the entries. Most of the calls were to and from the same set of three numbers. There was one that stuck out from the others, a local number. He hadn't had the luxury of using a phone in the past few weeks, but he recalled this one belonged to the shop Kagome and Hojo had worked at.

InuYasha figured Bankotsu was checking to see if the old pair still lived in the inn.

Kagome knitted her brows, looking out the door at the wind chime that sang against the silence.

"Bankotsu was supposed to take over his father's company before he was forced to go under." The girl said, "He was devastated that he couldn't make the money his father had. Then again, they were running weapons from China." A shrug rolled across her shoulders.

InuYasha tensed, shutting the celluar and stuffed in his pocket. "I know that." He said tersly. "We can at least use the phone to keep ahold of Kaede-baba."

Kagome mulled over what he had said and felt an uneasiness rising. "What do you mean that you know?"

The man waved her off, trying to suppress a memory. "I did have to talk to him, didn't I?" He responded, his mind warring to keep his past behind him. What had occured in Tsukiji was beyond him now.

Everything that he had worked so hard for was a sham. When Kanagawa's company floundered, he had been the first cut made. It had mostly been his fault that their activity had found out.

Closing his eyes, he bathed in the blackness behind them. He wanted to feel nothing. Holding on to the man's affects made him feel sick. Bankotsu was probably washed well past the inlay of rocks that stood tall against the edge of the bay.

His hand ran through his hair as he looked at the girl. He licked his lips and structured a brick facade to keep her leering eyes at a distance. "Let's get some food in you and we'll call Kaede, alright? I'm not going to run off with you or anything, just please trust me."

Kagome stared with uncertainty for a moment, before she went and found a pair of her old jeans. They were skin-tight, uncomfortable. She'd frowned at how tiny she was when she was a teenager, not to think she had seen better days now.

InuYasha waited for her on the porch, smoking a bitter cigarette. It made him feel dizzy, relieved, and ill at the same time. When he flicked it, the woman joined him on the slick porch, still wearing his shirt like a dress.

There was something about that man that she couldn't put her finger on. She knew that Bankotsu was no good, but InuYasha was a little different. There was a kindred soul that laid beneath his skin.

She knelt down to tie her old green tennis shoes, adjusting the red fishing twine. Always had she found it to be a romantic gesture, keeping her right foot connected to a tether that would eventually tie her to someone else.

Little did she know that she was walking beside the other owner of the thread.

In Tokyo, Sango awoke to the hum of a clock. Shippo coiled around her like a spring, smothering her skin with a sweaty heat. It took her a few moments to peel him off of her, but she managed to slip past his tiny hands, replacing her body with Buyo's.

Ayame had been too tired to really socialize when they had arrived. Dressing herself in some of the woman's pre-pregnancy clothes, she shuffled across her apartment. It was the exact same as she had remembered it.

Clean, not a speck of dust to be found anywhere. The floor was glossy, polished as if someone had spent hours cleaning it. The hallway was an open mouth, leading to two other rooms, larger than the entirity of Sango's entire home.

As she rounded the corner, she found Ayame sitting at marble island in the kitchen. The woman smiled crookedly, as if unsure of the intent of her guest.

"Morning, Sango." She said, sipping on a freshly made smoothie. "I made you some coffee, it's over there." Her long fingers waved to a pot on the slick counter, with a cup waiting for the woman.

"Thank you. It's been a rough couple of days." Sango sighed, pulling her hair over her shoulder before she poured herself some of the steaming liquid.

"Oh?" Ayame said, "Well, you're here now and that's all that matters." Her voice was soft, hinted with a loving tone.

Sango took a seat across from her, staring at her brilliantly colored hair. She was always a Shibuya girl and she doubted that would ever change. Her eyes were already heavily lacquered with false lashes and layers of powder and liner.

Her stomach was hidden beneath the lip of the island, keeping the rounding curvatures a secret.

Sango found this visit to be awkward, heavily wrapped within a nervous habitual promise to do so.

The woman looked up from her magazine to wrinkle her nose at her guest. "So, did you adopt that little boy?" She asked almost curtly.

Sango shook her head, waving a hand in defeat. "I'm watching him for his father. He wanted to come so badly that I just brought him along with me. I'm sorry if it bothers you." She apologized.

"Sango, you know I love children. What's the boy's name?" She asked curiously, "Is his father's hair like that pretty color?

Sango's hands found her lap, "No. It's actually he adopted father. Both of his parents passed away and he was kind enough to take him in. Shippo and InuYasha have been through so much."

"The Ito boy had a son? Hm, I figured Miroku would have told me. I can't believe that man is still alive." Ayame gawked, amazed by hearing that name. There had only been one person she'd ever heard with that same and she was just _sure_ it was _him_.

Sango blinked, knowing that InuYasha had lived in Tokyo until the past year. It would have made sense with his job and all to know a lot of people. But the one thing that stood out in her mind, before anything else, was _Miroku._

Her cheeks darkened and her eyes fell to the floor, before raising back to Ayame's in stealth. "So, how is he anyway?"

Ayame's eyes rolled, "He doesn't live here anymore. I told him to leave. I've just been so dissatisfied with him. I don't care if he feels differently. This entire ordeal was just too much for someone like him to handle."

It was like he had meant nary a thing to her.

Sango's chest pounded. "I'm sorry, Ayame. What about the baby?" She pointed to her friend's robust stomach.

"Pfft, I'm perfectly capable of taking care of him. My little Ginta is going to be just fine. Besides, I've been seeing someone else, actually, for a while now. I'm not even sure that the baby is his." Ayame sighed. She didn't hold any shame, just remorse for not knowing whether or not she had to deal with him any longer.

Sango furrowed her brows and bit her lip. "Really? Did he know that you were having an affair?"

"Obviously. It's not like he could keep his pants on." Her eyes lingered over Sango. "Ah, well, its all in the past and I don't have to deal with anymore of his bullshit. People think I'm being cruel about it, but the man that I have now _is_ a man, not a boy trying to be one."

"Miroku's a lawyer Ayame, and just because he has a sense of humor doesn't mean that he's any less of a man than whoever it is you're with now." Sango bit back the anger that was building in her chest. She never remembered her friend being so cruel.

"You have a sweet spot for Miroku, Sango?" Ayame's sculpted brows arched as her hand caught the kicking of her child.

"No, I'm just saying that you really shouldn't strip him of his manhood by saying that. He bought you everything you have, everything you could have ever wanted. Hell, Ayame, he paid for your schooling that you do nothing with." The woman was livid. Ayame was so ungrateful for what she had been given.

Sango would have killed for someone to have cared enough to do that for her. She would have used every bit of her lessons for the better good of others and her life. She'd had to pay for all of her schooling, work two jobs to be where she was at now.

How dare she assume that the hand she was dealt was so hard to overcome. There was no adversity other than selfishness for her to contend with.

"I didn't invite you to see me only to be berated for the best choice I've made in a long time. Is that the reason that you came to visit so often, too see my husband, Sango?" Ayame scowled, her voice soaked to the chord in apathy.

Sango sighed, her hand palming her face. "No, you're one of my best friend's. You _know_ that. I don't know why you'd even think of saying some of the things that you do though. Your parents raised you better than that."

Ayame crossed her arms, heaving a hefty sigh. Her mood was already soured by the idea that she had been encroched upon. Sango was just a wolf in a hen's house.

"Well, you can take that attitude with you when you leave. I didn't expect you to be so uppitty seeing as you moved away to that crappy city." The uppity woman spat, finding it hard to control any sense of selfless demeanor.

It was all or nothing now. The tides had turned for them, obviously. This visit was going to end as soon as she could get her out the door.

"Ayame, don't you think that you're being a bit unreasonable?" Sango asked, feeling aggrivation eat at her. She hoped that Shippo was still asleep. This conversation was getting dirty, and he didn't need anything else to worry about.

There was a resounding silence that fell over them for a moment. Ayame had been a smoker and pulled out a drawer next to her. Since she had gotten pregnant she had only had them in _emergency situations_, as she called them.

Her eyes bore holes into the woman as she pressed one between her lips. As soon as she lit it, she saw Sango's jaw clench. Her guest moved, sliding the chair out from her quietly.

She had almost made it to the sink to deposit her cup when Ayame's words stung her like a poisoned barb.

"_I'm not the one that killed their brother_."

Those words slayed her. Sango sucked in a breath that could have fair near made her lungs explode. No one had ever spoken such malicious words to her. She died all over again as she felt her eyes well with tears.

Everything inside of her was quivering. If Ayame wasn't pregnant she would have pounced her like a lion, decking her in her crude mouth.

Sango tried to calm herself, wringing her hands along the backside of her neck.

"How could you even say that to me?" She said, hushed and so soft Ayame barely heard her.

"Because, you are just as bad as everyone else. No one thinks that you're a good person around here. It's amazing that you find the strength to even come see me." The red headed woman belittled her, exhaling her fumes into the air.

"He was suffering, Ayame. He had cancer and was going to die. He begged and begged and _begged_ me to help him not suffer anymore. Do you know what kind of weight that has on me? I don't even nurse really. I just do paperwork like a dog." Sango's voice wavered, all of her conviction was washing away and leaving her with the residue of her mistakes.

"You know, maybe this wasn't a good idea. I thought that we could fix the friendship we had, but we can't. You can just leave with that kid, and hope and pray that you and his father are meant for each other." Ayame said in a haste huff. She waved her cigarette at the woman, feeling the weight of the room crash down upon her.

"Shippo has nothing to do with any of this. His father is a good man, how can you say things like that?" Sango's eyes searched hers for a moment before realizing that she had overlooked his name, as though it had been normal. She was so blinded by Miroku that it sickened her.

"It surprises me that you think I speak of people without knowing them." Ayame retorted, pushing herself to her feet. She gripped the counter, waddling slighty in her efforts to put out her cigarette.

"You know InuYasha?" Sango asked, knitting her brows together. Her heart was jostling violently as she looked towards the woman's painted face. Dread slapped her across the face again, as she wondered about his safety for the millionth time.

"He_ was _Miroku's best friend, Sango. Do you really think that I'd have known anything about him if he wasn't leeching off of us for months." Ayame shrugged lackadaisically.

"You kicked him out on the street when he had nothing?" Sango was dumbfounded. How could anyone let someone go without shelter? Let alone being someone so close to her husband.

"Well, what was I suppose to do? He was so pitiful that there wasn't anything anyone could do. I'd assumed he was dead. Miroku's given up hope on him, too. He went down to the mura to see if anyone had seen him, and that was the last we talked about him." The woman grumbled, getting tired of her guest's presence.

"Don't you need to tell him he _isn't_?" Sango hoped with every fiber of her being that he still was. Closing her eyes, she swallowed the darkness until she heard Shippo's footsteps stirring. The bathroom door shut and she let out a sigh.

"What does it matter to me, honestly? I haven't spoken to Miroku in over a month. Why don't you go tell him, if you can find him, or whatever." Ayame's lips pursed, arms crossing over her spherical stomach.

"Ayame, you know where he's staying, don't even act like you don't know." The other woman bit, shaking her hands in aggitation.

"_Fine_." Ayame glowered, grabbing a pen and paper from a drawer. "_Here_, he's probably going to be really happy to see you after all this time." Her voice was like the most vile sound she'd ever heard. She'd lost everything in this city, now.

There was no attachment that she saw worth coming back for. It had enveloped her brother, her, and all of the people that she had ever known with this cynical and devastating sickness.

Each illness varying in severity until it finally took its toll.

"Thanks. I'm sorry we bothered you." Sango snapped at her as Ayame slapped the paper down on the counter.

"Oh, Sango?" Ayame stopped her as she stormed away. "Why don't you keep your nose out of other peoples business. That's what caused InuYasha all this trouble. It's for that child's best interest. Besides, you don't want to be involved with that man."

Sango looked as though she'd been shot. Ayame didn't know a damn thing about InuYasha. It didn't matter how much he was around before, and she obviously didn't know anything about her.

Hell, she was supposedly supposed to be her best friend, after all.

"Ayame, go fuck yourself." Sango seethed on her breath as she headed down the hall to gather up Shippo.

She just prayed to the gods that fate would untangle the mess that it had made within its web.

Her hand fell on the bathroom door, as her eyes lingered on the paper in her hands.

"_Do you still love me, Miroku?"_

**AN: YES. ANGSTY ANGST AND ANGST.**

**Some of the ties are starting to thread together, now.**

**I'm fairly pleased with this chapter, no matter how angry I am at it for the difficulty.**

**Haha. But, as always, I hope that you enjoyed it and will continue to support this story.**

**Thank you for your reads and reviews!**

**-Jiru-**


	10. Reflection

**AN; I am so sorry for the delay on this chapter. I've written seven different variations and I hate this one the least. I hope that it carries on well. I've already started on the next chapter and it's coming so much more naturally.**

**Please be gentle with this one.**

**Thank you to my readers and reviewers! I love hearing from you and I think that I may have the very best. **

**La Pisces; Thank you very much! A lot of things are answered in this chapter. Setting up for the action is so hard! Haha. **

**I also feel really bad about making Ayame so mean. She just seemed fiery enough of a character that she could have a mean streak in her. ;)**

**Child of Dreamz; Thanks. :)**

**I'm pro-Sango and Miroku. I just have to get him in the story. Haha. Which is kind of hard. But, I'm really glad that you enjoy the interaction between InuYasha and Kagome. **

**Nice Stories; I appreciate your feedback so much. It makes me feel so much better as a writer. Life isn't black and white and I'm glad that you see that in this. That makes me so happy! **

**Anime Lady PIMP; I'd have probably been just like that if I was in that situation. ;)**

**SexyxAngelx09; Nah, we are well on the road to a San/Mir. InuYasha and Kagome have a bit to go, but I'm trying to get that rolling. Haha.**

**ninjamidori; I was doing really good with updates for a while there! D: **

**You guys are getting a second chapter at some point today for such a long wait!**

***crosses fingers* Hopefully this will be up to par! Enjoy my friends.**

**Chapter 10**

_**Reflection**_

The explanation of prosperity contained a loose meaning, burying the bows of many ships into the depths of the sea, only to be buoyant enough to carry on. To earn your way, to continue to preserve what able hands have so woefully created, isn't that enough to consider yourself lucky in the times of strife?

Sango supposed that Ayame had been corrupted by the lifestyle of a queenly Shibuya wife. The same perserverance she had sought seemed far fetched. She'd know the woman had been callous before, but never to the extent as she was upon her visit. It was bad enough that the poison that laced her words were true, let alone the assumption that she had taken Miroku from her.

What had happened between them wasn't the violent betrayal that Ayame believed. It was something that Sango could only grasp and hold. She doubted another woman could have ever felt as she did during those times.

Alas, a scowl traced the edges of the woman's mouth as she held Shippo's hand. The little boy was stuffed, rubbing his full tummy as though he was soothing an infant. Buyo still stuck out from his collar, leaving his visibilty stifled.

He'd wondered why they had left her friend's luxurious home so soon. It was like a dream to sleep upon those silky sheets, and rest in that plush, pillow filled mattress. It had been something like he'd seen on the television.

Sango had told him that Ayame was sick and she didn't want to get the boy anymore ill than he was. He'd gotten a case of the sniffles, and she blamed it on the Shibuya woman. It had been two days since they'd left her and that sticky note still burned holes in the woman's pocket.

Her free hand felt the edges of the paper as though it would harm her. She wanted nothing more than to run to that address and see if he remembered her. Of course, she knew that he did, but the fleeting feeling of curiousity was more than enough to drive her wild.

She'd thought enough to call the hospital to see if InuYasha had been there, and was eased at hearing that he was fine. He'd visited Old Totosai and Kaede-baba the day before, and apparently was green as grass when he left.

Apparently, whatever had happened there, hadn't been pleasant - from what her coworkers had said, anyway.

Sango closed her eyes for a moment and escaped the bustling streets. She smelled the wafting plumes of yakitori stands and ramen carts as she passed by them. Shippo made aching sounds whenever he saw the food, being sickened by the sheer sight.

He'd been happier than he ever had been, being able to see such an illustrous city. Sango had taken him to the theme park, took him on rides, and took him to an arcade. It was like a child's dream.

Shippo just wished that she would act like she was having a good time. He and Buyo loved on her as she relented to his tugs. Reaching down, she picked up the small boy in her arms.

"What are we going to do now, Sango?" The curly haired boy asked, clinging to her warmth like a glove on a hand.

The woman kissed his forehead and smiled crookedly, trying her best to avoid the throngs of teenage girls standing outside of the Shinjuku shops. "I-I want to go see an old friend, but I don't know if that's going to work out so well." Her lips fell into a frown, finding her head roaming dangerous territory.

Shippo scrunched his nose at the snow flake that fell upon it. "InuYasha always talked about when he lived here. Can we go see where he lived?" The little boy was curious, aware that that statement was broader than it was direct.

He knew that InuYasha had lost his home, but the sentiment of seeing where his newly found father had been from excited him. And, the boy had felt it the right opportunity to ask, seeing as how Sango had kept them roaming aimlessly for the past hour.

Reluctantly, the woman rolled the idea over her head, stopping just short of a crosswalk. She sat the boy down and knelt to his level, brushing her hair from her doe eyes. "Listen," She said softly, trying to keep her nerves from rattling. "If I take you, you have to promise me something, okay?

Shippo clutched to Buyo, holding him to his mouth as he nodded. His eyes inspected the hestitation on the woman's flushed face, leaving him utterly curious. "What do I need to promise?" His mouth pouted slightly as Sango sighed.

Her shaky hands pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket and eyed it for a moment. Her heart was gusting side to side and every which way it wanted to go. "Promise that if you see me get upset, that you won't."

The little boy's brows furrowed as the snow began to pick up. The pedestrians on the street zipped by with their heavy coats and umbrellas expanded. "Why would you get upset?"

Sango sniveled, trying to push back the feelings that she'd suppressed. "Because, we're going to go see someone who's very important to me, okay? I just want you to know that I'm okay." She said quietly, readjusting the buttons on the boy's new coat.

Shippo nodded, "I promise. I just don't want you to cry anymore." He said, finding her eyes laying on him like a blanket. They were etched with tears that she wouldn't let fall and she sucked them back.

"Alright, baby. He lives where InuYasha used to live." Sango wiped her nose as she raised off the ground, brushing off the damp knee of her jeans.

The cold hit her hard when she stood up, nipping at the edges of her ears and cheeks. Her neck felt like the icy knife of winter had cut into her flesh.

Shippo had probably felt the same when the wind swept by. Idly, the woman buried herself in her coat as they headed to the train station. There was a vibrant thrush of memories that warmed her, darting from one moment to the next in a violent fervor.

Tsukiji's train had already left by the time they had arrived, leaving the trio - Buyo included - to meander around the shops. Sango bought Shippo a small blue umbrella to keep the snow out of his fine hair.

He was antsy to get out of the decorated novelty shop near the station. Buyo was flying around on the edge of his hand, making his excitement more than apparent. Not only did he have this umbrella, something that he had never owned, but was going to see the sights he'd dreamed of seeing.

Sango was just about as nervous, tapping her hands upon the counter. The woman at the register seemed irritated, but kept her mouth sewn shut. She was waiting for her to get done wrapping a small box and it seemed like a lifetime had passed by.

Each crinkle of the golden paper cried out as if it was slowly dying. A hammering blew through her ears, marking the coiling silver string that bound the gift together. When the thin woman finally sat it down on her lavish counter, she forced a smile.

Sango had never been so happy to see money leave her hands. As she took the box and stuffed into her silky coat pocket, she grabbed Shippo's hand, leading him out into the busy street.

Immediately, his umbrella opened, guarding him and his beloved bunny from the rain of snow. The cold cusped his cheeks as they rushed around a corner to the train platform. Sango danced on her feet, back and forth, up and down, as the train doors opened, expelling the innards of its former capacity.

The woman grabbed Shippo, pulling him close as she fought her way on the train. It had been something she'd never missed and didn't think she ever would. The boy was dumbfounded by the amount of people that could fit in one compartment.

He looked around in awe as Sango gripped to a pole beside her. Everything that dwelled inside of her exploded. She wanted to vomit from her nervousness as the doors closed and the recorded voice chirped destiations and warnings.

The satisfaction of knowing that her will was stronger than her mind was all too surreal. There wasn't a fraction of her body that seemed like it could withstand the destructive force that crushed her.

In a few brief moments, most of which that blurred by like the city in her window, she could be lost in the mura.

She hoped that he remembered her the way she was. That lively woman was gone, whisked away by the remorse and life she was forcing herself to lead. Every broken part of her skin could be put back together, but all of the pieces weren't there.

Kohaku's death had driven her mad. It left her in the state that she had been ever since. No matter how long ago, it was still the freshest wound. Ayame had just douced her with the stingy salt of her words.

It felt as if she was lacerated, drowning in an ocean. Miroku had been everything up until that point, and it was her fault that it had ended. The guilt, the writhing regret surged in her as she forced herself to be strong.

Shippo nuzzled lovingly in the woman's leg. Her fingers ruffled his bangs, toying with the ends when the train began to slow. The rush of adrenaline kicked it, blinding her with pseudo courage.

She looked down at the boy and his worn rabbit and waved his arm back and forth as they waited for the dismissal. They exited to the smell of the sea, and its familiar balmy breath.

As they stood on the platform, Sango's dark eyes scanned the slanted, gray landscape looking for the only man she had ever loved.

Love? How fleeting of a thing. The ones to long for are always swallowed by the threads of fate and knitted into an intagible web of circumstance.

A person cannot be unbroken, or unpacked of their extra weight. They merely exist with a lessened sense of self in order to blur their reality with that of another.

It's blind to the bad, and often to the good. Love smears the lines on the paper, graying what was once so defined.

Kagome had felt that way for years. Her one love left her unattended beneath the smoky skies of Kyoto. He'd left in his plaid shirt, scruffy face, and with a woman she didn't recall the name of.

Her face scrubbed against her pillow trying to erase any trace of him. He was a summer love, the one that she couldn't really have. Afterwards, she had been so trusting.

It was her fault that she had let Bankotsu close. It was _her_. Every tawdry thing that had happened to her was of her own doing, she scowled. Blaming herself was the only was to justify any of this.

It may have been the furthest thing from the truth, yet she was content in believing it.

It disappointed her that she was such a coward that she'd forced InuYasha to lie to her grandparents. They'd taken drastic measures to make sure she was left unnoticed. Everything felt as though it was crumbling.

The sea was eroding her.

The panic attacks were violently shattering what semblance of reality she had left as she tossed and turned in her bed. The ceiling fan was obnoxious, ticking like a clock in its rickety tune. Each solitary sound clunked, clacked, banged in a tune that she abhored.

She would have turned the damn thing off, but it was never cold enough. It was already cold in the house, but it was never quite enough to quell the burning of her pale skin.

Kagome felt like a sailor, plunging to death in the frigid arctic waters. She let out a sigh, flipping on her back to see the familiar flicker of the television, playing some Korean drama.

Being alone was murderous. Her hands wound in her hair, pulling away from her face. The small scratches and cuts had begun to heal, leaving her blank, just like she felt.

She itched to have someone beside her. Every sound was like a haunting memory chasing her down. She wasn't safe in her own bed, the one that InuYasha had taken for the length of his stay.

Her breathing was ragged as she disrobed. It was too hot, now. The long sleeve shirt she'd worn was tossed on the floor, leaving her heaving chest exposed. She creased away the cold sweat that beaded on her flesh, like removing a casing that was binding her.

Closing her eyes, she thought of her family. If they had known, she would be wrapped within their warm arms. Comfort seemed so far away as she lay alone.

Kaede-baba's brambled hands couldn't soothe her if even she was home to do so. Hearing her voice, that old hoarse voice, had done more damage than it was worth. She'd listened to the call that the man had made, guiding him through each move.

InuYasha had been forced to leave her alone when he took the old couple a few snapshots and clothes. The hospital had kindly offered refuge for the pair, noting how ill Totosai had become.

In that room, it smelled stagant, full of cleaner and medication.

Kaede-baba was hunkered down in the chair beside her husband, briskly rubbing her hand over his withered skin. His eyes were no longer bright, being swallowed with age and worry. He resembled an old tree limb, twisted and flaking beneath the weather.

InuYasha hadn't faired too well seeing his saviors so weak. Kaede looked as though her home was the least of her worries. She'd rasped to him, telling him the sweet lie that '_things are just things, they can be replaced.'_

The man could tell that she was distraught over the loss of her business and her home. He hadn't known how long they had resided there, but all that mattered was that they would have somewhere to go in the end.

Old Totosai never spoke. He just drifted in and out of the restless sleep that they had prescribed him through the needles in his veins. Every time InuYasha wanted to tell him that Kagome was alive, and that she was at home with him, he refrained from fear.

Kaede's empty holes bore into him, her hands dishelving her wiry gray hair from its tight bun. "Please, take care of my home the best you can." She said, her eyes returning to her ailing love.

InuYasha nodded, swallowing hard. He'd never wanted to lie to them. Their hope had hung so heavily on finding Kagome that it was devastating to withold the brunt of that knowledge.

He wanted to tell them that he -well, Bankotsu, thanks to his wallet - had bought her new clothes, some good nurishing food, and things to repair the house. Yet, he suppressed it the best he could.

It took all of his strength to speak to the woman as her rough hands cupped his cheeks, looking up at him with nothingness in her eyes. "Please, InuYasha, I just want to have warmth in my home again. I need to feel that before I go. Papa does, too."

Her body shook as she withstood the proverbial wind that wanted to flounder her. The man pressed his forehead to hers, trying his best to keep his eyes from actually meeting hers. In all of his years, this kind of guilt had never clung to him.

It was maddening to hold that kind of power.

"I know, Kaede-baba." He whispered, looking at the machines flicker on and off. "I need to meet Sango and Shippo at some point. They're still in Tokyo and I have business I should take care of. I promise I'll do what I can, and I'll only be gone a few days."

The woman pressed her mouth in a gummy line, trying to straighten the wrinkles. She sniveled, retracting her hands to press against her chest. "I want that boy home!" Kaede said, missing the soft banter of his voice as he talked to Buyo. "I have no one to tell secrets to, because I don't trust either of you."

InuYasha would have laughed had he not been eaten alive by that guilt thing he'd thought about. He did find it amusing that she was so bold. A smirk creased his lips, leaving her satisfied in easing the situation.

The woman's hands patted InuYasha's back as he stood up, "As soon as you take care of that business, I want you home so I can show you how to cook that boy a proper meal. You can't rely on Sango forever, boy." She cooed, loving him as if he was her own.

"I'm sorry that someone broke in. I'm just glad I was home to take care of it. I just wish it could have been different." InuYasha shrugged as he grabbed his coat.

Kaede swatted the air, "Lives are more important than things. The only things I want are people, and I can't always have them, can I?" She said with a melancholy wave washing over her.

He lowered his head in response to the beeping monitors and sighed. What could he have said to that? Her husband was dying and the piece that sewed everything together was at their house, reliving the nightmare of the past year.

His nails scratched at his eyebrow as he gave the woman a reassuring hug and left. The walk to the elevator had been numbing, resounding with a silence he basked in as he floated down to the bottom floor.

Tokyo was imminent, but he had some more work to do first. The pile of shit kept getting bigger, he glowered. The woman at the front desk watched him go, chatting on the phone idly.

He didn't care for her much. She was nary as sweet as Sango and couldn't wait for her to be back in this hell hole. At least then, he knew that Old Totosai would be taken care of, even if she wasn't the one doing it.

The damp wind seemed to knock him back into reality as he mouted his rusty bike. The night was dark, drab in comparison to how lovely the day had been. He mused over the visit, trying to comprehend the severity of his actions.

The will he had was reflective of hatred for himself. He was a strong man, but even the strongest of men have weaknesses. It was true for the woman in that house and the prisoners of the hospital.

Kagome, however, was diluted by the sense of pride that Bankotsu had shattered into so many pieces. Finding all of them would take a lifetime, but he was happy to help her if she could be happy.

He wanted nothing more than his son to be happy, as well. Sango was a nuturing soul and deep down, he knew that he was safe and fed. If anything had been wrong she would have notified someone and they would have told him at the infirmary, surely.

With a sigh, he found that time had escaped him, leading him down the familiar crook to his home. The lights were still light and the scent of blood was still fresh upon the snowy earth.

As he parked his bike next to the old porch, he stumbled in, kicking off his wet shoes. His jacket shucked itself to the floor as he made his way to his room. The smell of cookies hit his nose and he knew Kagome was still awake.

Even in the wreckage, that was the one thing that she had for from the store. A girl needed something of familiarity and comfort. No one could feel bad with sugar brooding in their system.

The man blew a hot breath in his bangs as he slipped off his sweaty shirt and tossed it over his shoulder. The hallway was just about finished, he noticed. It was more like admiration of his hard work over the past couple of days.

The concept of sleep was bittersweet. A yawn curled out of his mouth as he gripped the handle to his room. The low hum of the television gripped him, ripping him out of the harshness of the day.

He hadn't wanted to sleep so badly since the first night he was in Akita. All of the memories that flooded him slowly shook free until he actually got the door open.

InuYasha may have very well been a teenage boy. He froze to the tip of his toes, trying his best to keep his startled expression to himself.

Kagome laid vacant, half naked and sprawled on the crumpled sheets and blankets. Her breathing was heavy and her skin lacquered with a fine sheet of sweat.

The boy's heart was wild, jostling in a violent dance to escape.

The girl on the bed tore her eyes from the ceiling and let her gaze rest upon him. Her heart was just as voracious as his, skin just as dark. It was like her body moved on its own, pushing her to her feet.

The overwhelming feeling of being alone had pummeled her into such a state, she could barely register the depth of what she had done. Her arms latched around him, feeling the clamminess of his bare skin against hers.

InuYasha flinched beneath her, clenching his jaw as he still looked away. He felt her smooth hair crease across his chest, soothing it with its cool waves. "Um, Kagome, what are you doing?" He asked, holding his breath as tightly as he could.

The girl nuzzled into his skin, taking in his scent. She was trembling violently, trying to maintain any sense of strength. "Don't leave me here alone. Please. I can't stand to be alone. I wanted to be, but I can't. I still need someone and I'm sorry." She whispered, her voice was just as wobbly as her legs.

InuYasha closed his eyes, tongue dampening his dry lips. He pulled the shirt off his shoulder and handed it to her, never taking his hestitant gaze from the wall. "Put this on, then I'll sit with you for a while. I just talked to your grandparents." The man rasped, trying to make himself devoid of the stirrings in his body. "We need to talk about some things."

He was just a man, after all. A lonely one at that. No matter how his body screamed, he refused to take advantage of the damaged girl and relaxed when the woman detached and pulled away.

The softness of her body was gone, leaving him empty and chilled by the blows of the fan. It was all he could do to keep himself in check as she turned away to quickly pull the shirt over her head.

It came as and after thought how embarrassed she was, but it didn't matter. He was back and she wasn't befriending the ghosts in her head.

Her self respect was something she couldn't hold anymore. It was something she would have to earn again. This vacany sign that hung in her eyes had to be turned off.

InuYasha ran a hand through his mussed hair, slicking out the heat of his hand. When he felt secure, he looked down at her and absently pulled her bubbled hair from the collar of the shirt.

The girl lowered her head, arms latching around herself as she was swallowed by his shirt. "I'm sorry, InuYasha. I-I just..." She stammered, eyes darting across the floor as if it could creak and speak up for her.

Closing her eyes, she finally stopped the world from moving in the acute rotation around her thoughts. "Are-are they alright?"

InuYasha bit his lip and gestured for her to climb back in the bed with her crumbs. He brushed them off and sat down with his back to the girl, as she climbed upon the other side.

A pillow was crushed against her chest as she watched his even, slow breathing. His back was hunched and his arms laid across his knees. She could hear the worry and exhaustion in his voice, leaving her confused by the comfort he brought.

"Kaede-baba is alright. She's just worry about Old Totosai. He's not doin' too well." The man said, shooting her a half glance over his shoulder. "I told her that I had some business to take care of, and I need to know, before I do anything if you are coming with me or staying here."

The boy turned around completely, facing her with a seriousness in his eyes. It made her blush reappear as she stiffened beneath his gaze. His words were hazardous to the fragility she was struggling with.

Licking her lips, Kagome let herself fall slack on the bed. Her eyes lingered on the man for a moment, inspecting his five o'clock shadow and newly forming crows feet. She didn't know what to tell him, let alone what to think.

A moment of heavy quiet passed, leaving her struggling to make a sound. When it finally erupted from her lips, she was proud, relieved that something had finally translated from her brain to her pittling mouth.

"Is Papa dying?"

Those words reflected the reality that she had been hiding from behind the two way mirror that lead to the Neverland she had sought. Coming home only meant more problems to contend with and she wasn't ready. Leaving wasn't the answer either, but what could she do?

InuYasha plopped down his back, a good foot away from her. Both stared at the ceiling fan, circulating like the earth. He'd fairly known what to tell her. Then again, did he really need to solidify what she already knew?

Dread pricked at him with its acute claws, making his skin feel like it was raw. Kagome looked as though she felt the same, curling herself into a ball with her pillow pressed against her stomach.

No matter what she had gone through, she was still so loving beneath the exterior she presented.

A gruff sigh escaped his lips and he shook his head slightly, trying to formulate the proper wording, but it had failed him. "I think that you should come with me to the hospital tomorrow. I know that you don't want to yet, but I think that they need to see you."

The girl was empty. She couldn't feel the tears that dribbled from her eyes, or the sound of her heart pounding into her stomach. It was like she was completely devoid of feeling anything more than she already had.

InuYasha knew that the distraught woman would collapse beneath the pressure, but for tonight...

Just for tonight, InuYasha swallowed his pride and went limp against his back. His head was cradled by a plume of his hair, wrapping around the pillow like a silver halo. A hand reached for Kagome's, his eyes searching her pallid face.

The girl's shaky hand entered his and relaxed at the tension in his muscles. The gentle squeeze and reassured her as she brought her knees to touch his stomach. No matter how badly she wanted to look at him, and thank him, she stayed silent chasing away the monsters that were drawn across the map of her life.

Neither knew what tomorrow would bring. Yet, as InuYasha closed his eyes, blacking out the trials of the day, he knew that he would do right by her.

Sometimes, it's the only thing you can do.

**AN; Well, that was the beast.**

**Let me know what you guys thought, good or bad.**

**The next chapter is the introduction to Miroku, as you guys most likely know.**

**He's my favorite character to write for. **

**Thanks for reading! :D  
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	11. Waves

**AN: **

**PLEASE LISTEN TO **

**_Passenger "The Golden Thread"_**

**_It is such a lovely song that I wrote this chapter to._  
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**TO ALL OF YOU:**

**Every one of the reviews that I have received for the last chapter have been so wonderful. I'm glad everyone enjoyed it. Haha. **

**NiceStories; thank you. I usually try to read it over and edit it before I post it, but I appreciate that! If you see anything else, let me know and I'll correct it. And, I'm so glad that you enjoy this so much. I don't need a shrine, just some cookies will be good! ;D**

**ninjamidori; LOL. I'm glad that you liked it. I was like, they probably think I died. **

**Child of Dreamz; Thank you so much. I've been writing fanfiction for 9 long years. Haha. I take a lot of situations and the way the characters behave, from experiences that I've had and people I know.**

**Miroku's a little different that he normally is in this story, but he's ALWAYS so much fun to write for. Kagome's gonna have to make up her mind!**

**SexyxAngelx09; Girl, you're about to read a whole lot about Miroku. ;D**

**Anime Lady PIMP; She's a strong girl. She'll overcome it. :)**

**And finally, **

**LoVe23; Thank you! I'm glad that you decided to join us here! :)**

**Alright my lovely readers and reviewers, this is a treat for you guys.**

**Assuming that you like this sort of thing. ;D**

**This is a special little chapter here. **

**You know that sexual and adult situations disclaimer? **

**Yeah.**

**I was going to post this last night, but my love comandeered the internet. :|**

**I hope that you like it. I'm posting another chapter tonight, because this is a slight break from the super drama.**

**Chapter 11**

_**Waves**_

Branches bent and koi kites wrinkled across the vast plain of houses, resting upon the inlays of rocks and gravely pavement. Each one of their facades had a story to tell. Some were warm, refreshed with paint and new shutters.

Others, like most, were peeling from the corrosive salt that licked their sides and damp from the conditions that they had weathered. The _one_ that housed a wondrous secret was larger, ladden with care.

A rickety wooden fence, covered with a layer of snow, held Sango had bay. Shippo was weary and exhausted from the trek from the fresh market the town was known for.

The woman stood with the piece of paper in between her gloved fingers, searching the structure for any signs of life.

It was such a numbing moment in her life, that she could barely register her hand swinging the creaky, knee high gate open. The little boy was tired of standing in the cold and brushed past the woman's legs.

Making her heart fair near explode, had it not already been in the state prior to him being so bold. Sango couldn't help from searching the grounds as though she was an unknown tresspasser.

A bundle of fire food lay on the small porch, neatly tied with a white tether. There was a collection of smooth, expensive looking pots making their way across the interior lining of the porch fence.

There was something endearing about how simple it was and it made her actually miss being in little ole Akita. Shippo was standing at the door, shuffling his feet as she clopped like a horse up the three steps.

Her conviction had lead her this far. There wasn't much left to the imagination anymore. It was now or never, and never wasn't an option.

No matter how she felt, with the responsive tingling in her arms and legs, she closed her eyes and blindly opened the crying screen door. It rested on her back, grating against her mussed hair as she hesitantly knocked upon the door.

Shippo watched her intently, holding Buyo to his nose to keep him warm. The woman held her breath, keeping all of her oxygen to herself. She looked over her shoulder a couple of times before she gave up.

A few long, silent moments passed by with no answer. Part of her had died all over again as she expelled her breath, hot and steaming against the air. It was like all of the anticipation had been for nothing.

The boy beside her looked up, bouncing the tip of his umbrella off of the porch planks. He chewed as his lip, trying his best not to complain. Sango pinched the bridge of her nose and let the screen door snap shut.

Had hope been a balloon, floating so helplessly, it would have materialized with a shot through its center, bringing it down to the rubble around her feet.

Looking around the bleak landscape that lead to the murky ocean, Sango smiled to herself sadly. Her hand nervously placed the box upon the swing and hid the tears that hung to her lashes.

Shippo frowned at her, handing her Buyo's free hand for her to hold. She wished that she could feel his furry hand soothing her as they walked down the steps. Sango lolled her head back as the wind kicked her hair, letting her feel the release of heat she had contained.

The very last part of her longed to see that man's face, the only that she had never forgotten. The movie scene fantasy she had held on to for so long had become a burning mark on a reel.

The sound of the gate opening tore her from her thoughts as a lanky man hunched to close it. When he turned around, he met her gaze.

An intrusive illness swept over her and stained her cheeks as she let go of the rabbits hand. The man's cherubic face was adorned with a vibrant hue, hiding behind a pair of stark, black frames.

The grocery bag in his hand dropped, just as his mouth. Never in his wildest dreams did he think that he would have seen her again. His fingers shook beneath their gloves, burning them to his skin.

The woman's body was electric, pushing her lightning through the atmosphere. Shippo furrowed his brows, not understanding what had happened. He merely saw two adults staring at one another with love in their eyes.

Had this been the man that got away? He ruminated, watching Sango's feet move in a quick pace. The man in front of her held his arms to his sides, as she barreled into him, latching onto him as though he would disappear.

The tears that she had held within her, broke past the Bastille's walls and tumbled down with a furious wave. "Miroku..." She gasped in his chest, winding her hands in his navy coat.

His own hands curled around her, pulling her closer as though she would meld with his body. Miroku's nose buried in her hair, smelling the sweetness of her shampoo and perfume. That was the smell that he had missed all of this time. Her warmth, her loving smiles and distressed cries.

She was a haunted part of his past. Yet, he never let go of her. His divorce with Ayame was impending and that left him free. Nothing seemed real to him.

A smile spread across his face as he breathed her name. "Sango, where have you been?" He whispered, pulling back for a moment to wipe the tears off of her rosy face. "How did you find me?" His brows furrowed softly, brushing her hair from her eyes.

The woman sniveled, her worries melting like the snow beneath her feet. She felt like a school girl again, so robustly overwhelmed by the intensity of her emotions.

"I-I saw Ayame the other day. She wanted me to come visit, but it didn't go so well." Sango murmured, gripping to the edges of his coat.

Her breath danced in between them like smoke as Miroku's forlorn eyes fell upon the auburn headed boy, standing with his tongue out. "And who might this one be?" He asked with a smirk, moving away from her to only kneel down.

The man was fluttering with a delight he hadn't felt in years. His heart could have sang a sweet melody if anyone cared to listen. The little boy eyed him awkwardly, taking in the smile lines that ran above his painfully white teeth.

Extending a hand, Miroku nudged his head encouraging the motion to be met. Sango knelt to pick up the rogue fruit that had fallen from his bag and walked towards the boy and knelt beside him.

Shippo clung warily to Sango, noting only that she had been crying, smearing her make up down her face. He was unsure as she wrapped an arm around him, "This is my friend, Miroku. He means the world to me." She breathed, her chipmunk cheeks pert with attention.

"What's your name?" The man asked with his smooth voice, sending shivers down Sango's spine. She'd longed to hear anything that dripped from his chords, echoing the softness he always held.

Shippo held out Buyo's hand instead of his own, protecting Sango with his tiny hands, which knitted in her coat sleeve. "Ito Shippo." The boy said with a childish sneer.

Miroku stiffened, eying Sango precariously as he took the bunny's plush hand. "Ito? Is he?" He curiously looked at the woman. A part of him wanted to blurt out every question that came to his mind. But, he remembered she couldn't have children of her own.

That would have been a stretch of his imagination to think that InuYasha was still alive, let alone having an illegitimate child with Sango of all people. As he retracted his hand, he felt the wind cut into his face, making him shiver.

Pressing himself to his feet, he pressed a smile across his chubby face. He was perturbed to say the very least as he greeted the child warmly.

"Why don't we all go inside and get something to drink." Miroku said, receiving a flustered look from the woman. Her hands clutched to the grocery bag, winding it girlishly around her hands.

"Is that okay with you, Shippo?" Sango asked, swaying ever so gently. The boy looked at her with an arched, unamused brow, as though she was sneaking around behind his father's back.

"Does InuYasha know about this guy?" Shippo said, a little cocky just like his adopted father.

Sango bit her lip, lowering her head in a semi-defeat. "Baby, you know that I'm not seeing him." A hand cupped her forehead as Miroku relaxed within himself. He'd been blessed with so many things that it made his heart swell ten fold.

"Hmm, that would be of strange coincidences, yes?" Miroku chided, shaking his head at the idea, as though it was the most absurd thing he'd ever heard.

The man motioned towards the house, he shot Sango a look over his shoulder. It was powerful, subtle, amongst other things that she couldn't quite place. Those dark, shining eyes punctured her more deeply than he'd ever know.

To her, the sound of the screen door scratching at the hinges was a symphony. When the door finally opened, bursting with a welcoming warmth, she melted when she saw the simple interior.

_That_ was Miroku. He was simplistic, clean for the most part. It was just like she remembered his old place. No matter where he went, it smelled like him. It was like a holy scent layered in pine and a musky cologne.

It wasn't stuffy and sterile like Ayame's had been, it was so much more inviting. Miroku was a child in a lot of ways. He'd always wanted his own, but his wife had never been quite the nurturing kind.

The surprise of _this_ pregnancy was scattering in his mind. Deep down, he knew that Ginta didn't belong to him and left on his own accord, despite what she fallacies she chose to tell.

Placing his keys in a bowl upon the counter, he shucked his coat off and neatly hung it up near the door. Shippo inspected his new surroundings hesitantly, meandering through the man's living room.

It was plain, ordinary for a man that looked like he had so much money. Sango couldn't force herself to speak anymore as Miroku watched her remove the thick layers of clothing that hid her petite frame.

His arms crossed along his stout chest as he took a seat at a small table in the kitchen. Leaning over, he picked up a remote, turning on the television in the adjacent room for the boy and his bunny.

Sango chewed at her lip and pulled the cuffs of her sleeves to her hands as she sat across from the man. Her hair hung around her face, hiding the color still clinging to her cheeks.

The moment of rejuvenation had passed, leaving behind the wake of numbness that locked the questions she wanted to ask.

Miroku adjusted the glasses on his nose, focusing to see her better. A soft grin painted itself upon his mouth, gracing an open invitation for joy to bleed in.

"So," He licked his lips, getting the woman too look at him. "That's _InuYasha's _boy?" His tone was curious, as if he was excavating an unbelievable treasure.

Sango nodded, looking over shoulder at the boy that had made himself at home upon the plush, red sofa. "Yeah, he adopted him when his mother passed away. I've been helping him with him since he didn't have a mother. He's just the sweetest thing." She said reassuringly, aching to touch the man across from her again.

Miroku shifted nervously, placing his head in the palm of his hand as he relied on the strength of his elbow to hold him upright. "I'm just relieved that InuYasha is _alive_. Ayame had pretty much extinguished the idea of him living with us. He was working for Kanagawa Fishing Company before they went under and then he came to stay with us."

He sighed, finding the entire situation to be irreverent. His ex was just about as wily as they came and so incredibly fickle. "But, we'll get to that later." Miroku said, his dark eyes gathering Sango's complete attention. "I'd rather the time for misfortune to be at the end of this reunion."

The woman smiled awkwardly, shifting in her seat as though she couldn't relax. "How have you been?" She said, lowering her head to her fingernails. Her voice was almost nonexistent.

Miroku shrugged slightly, "Well, it looks as though I have done alright for myself." Sadness gripped at his voice, dampening his eyes with the same emotion. He couldn't say that he was well, but it couldn't nay say the notion either. "Aside from dealing with the divorce and all, I'm alright. What about you?"

Sango ran a hand through her hair, still in disbelief that this man was in front of her. Her heart was swollen as the soul that guided her motions. "I've been dealing. I work at a small hospital in a suburb of Akita. I have an apartment, Shippo to take care of, and InuYasha to cook for." Her brows lifted with a shrug.

The man nodded intently, listening to the gentleness in her voice. "He never could cook for shit." Miroku laughed, "I'm glad that you're working in your field. Are you a nurse?"

The woman sighed, "Sort of. I mostly handle paperwork and directions. I don't want to be put in a situation where people can make me feel guilty for doing my job. But, that's besides the point. I've wanted to see you for so long that this is the last thing I wanted to bring up."

Sango's breath left her completely empty as she chewed at her lip, trying to forget about the stinging words Ayame had said. The man across from her skidded his chair out and headed towards his counter, pulling out a couple of cups.

"Well, I know that when you lived here, you couldn't escape the accusations and all. I did everything I could for you and I'm still regretful that I couldn't take away the pain that you felt." Miroku continued, lighting the stove to brew some tea.

When Kohaku had passed away a bit prematurely, he had tried everything to keep her case from going to court. There had been a few doctors that pointed their long, knowing fingers at her. They said she was a murderer and needed to be put away, among other horribly explicit names that did her no justice.

A frown fell on his face as he maneuvered to the basket of fruit and wrapped up pastries he'd bought. He knew Sango was staring at him, etching the familiarity in his words. If she had relived the moment, it was his fault and regret ate at him.

A moment passed, letting the woman's thoughts reformulate. She didn't know what she could say. It was true and if he hadn't of done what he had, she would be sitting in prison with actual murderers and rapists. Kohaku couldn't have kept suffering.

Closing her eyes, Sango pressed back her tears and reopened them anew. "Miroku, I'm sorry that I left. I may have been marked a beast, but I never would have lost you and that has been one of the greatest regrets of my life."

Miroku's mouth parted as though he wanted to speak. Sango's hand clasped against her mouth at the vigorous string of words that poured from her mouth. A flush hit her and the tears that she suppressed tried so desperately to fall.

Miroku bit his lip, watching her fight to keep control. He glanced to Shippo, nodding off with his bunny stuffed into his arms. "Sango, do you honestly think that I would have married Ayame if you had stayed? I loved her, and I still do." He shook his head, his hand folding to a fist above his heart.

A conviction struck him, letting all of his emotion streak his eyes with a shaking grasp. "But, I have never loved anyone like I loved you. I wasn't a good husband. I cheated on, lied to her, but I still loved her. That love wasn't enough and she chose to leave and I understand that. If I hadn't of been so empty, I _never_ would have been with her."

Sango's face was slapped with awe. Her heart frittered as though it was beaten, ricocheting off of the muscular walls that bound it. The heat in her fingers reached the very tips of her toes.

Those damned tears fell freely, burning her cheeks with their heat. Her hands wound in her shirt, pulling at the fabric. "Every time I visited you, I never meant for any of that to happen. I'm sorry that I caused your marriage to fail. I'm so sorry, Miroku." Sango wept quietly, as to not disturb the boy.

Miroku slammed his fist down on the counter, looking her dead in the eye. Ignoring all of the smearing make up that masked her natural beauty, he gritted his teeth and clenched his jaw. "Sango, how dare you blame yourself for what happened. I'm fucking happy that I'm rid of her. I can finally be free of her family and her iron grip on reality. I am not hers. I never was. I waited every day after the last time I saw you for you to come back. All I have ever wanted was you."

Those words resounded in the small room as though a holy scripture manifested within the confines. The silence that came after the waves of his smooth, deep voice, crashed down with a suffocating force.

Sango's dark eyes caught the violence in his eyes, striking her with its furious hands. She forced herself to stand, skidding the chair across his wooden floor. Shippo jumped in his light sleep, but turned over, wrapping his arms around the throw pillows.

Her eyes closed as the soft whistling sound of the tea kettle threatened the silence. Miroku slid the kettle off the eye and flipped it off, never losing his tunnel vision on the woman. His heart beat furiously. He'd longed to say those words to someone, anyone that would listen.

Sango stood a merely two feet away from him, her hands nervously picking at her jeans. Her breathing was erratic, swamped by the heaviness in the room. Miroku swallowed hard, finding the courage to press his body firmly against hers.

His mouth captured hers in an owning kiss, pulling at the silky hair she had knotted with her own fingers in her nervousness. She tasted sweet, just like he remembered. Her body was quivering against him, trying to search the familiar territory that she had mapped out so many times.

His skin was soft, supple as it always was. Her fingers pulled at the hem of his shirt, as he danced with her towards his room.

Miroku's foot kicked the door open, closing it softly as he could behind him. Sango gasped against his mouth, stealing his breath.

Hungrily, he removed her shirt, fumbling with the buckle on his own pants. The woman ripped the shirt from his body, feeling his heat pour onto her own scalding flesh. The bed became apart of her back as he pressed his weight on top of her, smothering her with need.

He pulled back from her to gently caress her cheek as she slid from the rest of her clothing. He admired her, knowing how beautiful this woman was, it was more or less a greedy way to know that she was his.

Miroku's hands ran down her neck, applying enough to pressure to turn her flesh white beneath his fingers. Every move made her flinch, moan at the sensation. Removing his glasses, Sango tossed them across his pillows, wrapping her arms around his neck as he figeted with his underwear.

The woman parted her mouth, struggling to catch his lips. Miroku pressed his nose into the crook of her neck as he pressed into her, eliciting a frantic gasp from the woman. He breathed against her neck as he thrust into her, bringing out the resounding feelings that he had forgotten.

Sango's long fingers ran through his gossamer hair, pulling at the short locks as if they would grow. Her back arched into him, legs wrapping securely around his waist. Miroku grunted at the exertion, trying to feel as much of her as he could.

Her hands dragged down his back, finding the strength in the muscles that laid below such smooth skin. The woman's hips bucked, begging to be closer.

Miroku's motions became ragged, uneven as he rolled her on top of him. His hands delicately smoothed over the curvature of her waist as she enveloped him. Her breasts crushed against his chest as she squirmed.

This was all she had ever wanted. _He _was all she had ever wanted. Sango panted his name into his ears, knowing that this was exactly where she was supposed to be.

Miroku grasped her as the waves of their bodies matched the coursing of the ocean that lay outside his window, draining them of the emptiness that they had felt all those years.

_She_ had been the world that he had believed in.

**AN;**

**YEAH. JUST WENT THERE.**

**I really like how this chapter turned out.**

**Their feelings are unadulterated and innocent, despite everything.**

**Let me know what you guys think.**

**And, I never knew that eyeing was actually spelled eying. Hm.  
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**Next chapter is going to be more Kagome/InuYasha centric since this pretty much had none. I'm sorry for that, but this chapter needed to stand on its own. :)**

**Happy reading.**


	12. Siren's Howl

**AN:**

**First off, I would like to apologize for the lengthy delay in getting this posted. Life hit me hard last week, and have been dealing with a lot of personal issues. So far, they have been resolved and I can resume enjoying writing my stories and creating my art. **

**I really hope that you like this chapter. I hope it isn't premature, but I just loved how it felt to write it.**

**And thank you again to my wonderful reviewers and readers.**

**Child of Dreamz; It got real, didn't it? ;D**

**NiceStories; Don't feel bad about telling me about my errors. If you catch them, I'm happy to watch myself and edit my mistakes. That's how you get better, you know? And, I live in Texas. It's a long way from Germany, but we can always try teleportation. And I'm glad that you enjoyed the last chapter, my friend. :)**

**Anime Lady PIMP; You'll probably like this chapter. Haha.**

**SexyxAngelx09: It's FINALLY here!**

**LoVe23: Thank you, darling.**

**ninjamidori: *flails with excitement* I really hope your ready for this one.**

**:megusta:**

**Enjoy everyone.**

**Chapter 12**

_**Siren's Howl**_

The demons galloped away upon their tawdry steads. Darkness, which housed the evils, had slowly been dissolved by morning's golden hands. Its light peered through the slits of the wooden blinds that danced with dust in Kagome's room.

The absence of the warmth she had felt made her stir in the tangled sheets. The light hit her pallid face, warming the cold blows of the fan. She was silent as she parted her groggy eyes to see InuYasha's knobby back hunched.

He was foolishly smoking a cigarette in the house. His long hair cascaded in shining rivulets over his shoulders and it made her blush. Looking down, she stifled her breathing as she noticed her less than appropriate state of dress.

Her hands curled the thin sheet to her chest, averting her nervous gaze back to InuYasha's slow breathing. He was quiet. Overly so, and the girl found the courage to extend her lithe fingers to barely touch his back.

The man jerked around; the light catching his dark eyes to expose the tawny flicks that remained hidden. Kagome looked away from him as she fought the anxiety that writhed through her pounding heart.

The night before had been filled with torment and dismay. She couldn't wrap her head around how InuYasha was tending to her. It was sickening in a way.

Yet, as those eyes stared at her and a feeling of relief crashed upon her. A smirk curled the corner of his chapped lips as he exhaled the last plume of smoke. "You alright?" The man asked tiredly, trying his best to suppress a yawn.

Kagome pushed herself upright and nodded slightly, brushing back a strand of her hair. "I'm fine. Thank you for putting up with me. I'm sorry I'm being so difficult." She said, her voice hoarse and lazy from the reminents of her sleep.

InuYasha frowned at the knicks and cuts along her cheeks. He turned to her, brushing a bold hand across her cheek to remove the damp hair that clung to her skin.

The girl jerked, tensing beneath his touch. Her breathing deepened, trying to stabilize as the man bit his lip in response. InuYasha faintly knew what to do with this girl.

Part of him wanted to kiss her, reassure her that she would be fine. Yet he refrained for the fear of the newness that wasn't ready to replace the old withered feelings she held.

"You don't have to be afraid of me." InuYasha offered, finding his legs idly returning to the bed. He sat with his legs folded in front of her, back slouchy and listless.

Kagome scowled trying to place her thoughts. "You can't tell me what to do." She finally said, hugging herself as though her embrace would ostricize heself from his closeness.

InuYasha rolled his eyes and rested his head upon his hand. "You know, you if you didn't want to be around me, I could just leave." He said as a matter of factly. It was almost instantaneous that the woman's attention was caught.

He felt like he had caught a firefly and actually kept it from escaping. It was a proud moment, in some strange sense.

When the woman's mouth parted, it closed like a mouse trap. The point he made was valid and struck the small amount of pride she still clung to. Without him, Kagome knew that she would flounder in her own fears and drown within her doubt.

Flicking her stormy gaze over him, the girl felt as though she was empowered. It was the first time in almost a year that she had felt assured. He wasn't forcing her to do anything, just suggesting and exposing her to the reality that she was hiding from.

InuYasha chewed at his lip, trying to ignore how beautiful she was. All of her small imperfections were what made her human, and what made her so much more enticing. He'd eventually get the truth out of her, he ruminated.

Kagome felt as though a switch had been flipped. In that moment, she had realized that InuYasha had been staring and a genuine grin exposed her teeth.

InuYasha flinched when he met her eyes. There was something shocking about the way that she looked at him. There was no wonder that all of the men around here were throwing themselves at her feet.

His skin was flustered, much like the heart fighting against its normal tune. "Why are you looking at me like that?" InuYasha rasped, finding it hard to keep his face from contorting under her scrutiny.

The dark headed woman sighed and found the nerves in her body to be brightly burning. The moment she picked up her hand, she felt her heart beat throbbing in her fingers. It was as if she was being guided to touch him.

"I just don't understand you." Kagome said huskily.

InuYasha was her savior in a lot of ways. It may have been her delusional mindset, but it was certain that she wanted to see what he felt like. Fuck, after all that she had gone through with Bankotsu, she wanted to feel something of her own volition.

Curiousity betrayed her every languid move. Her hand cupped the man's scruffy cheek, feeling the abrasive strength in his jawline. It tensed beneath her touch and made her inwardly smile.

She hadn't felt anything like this is so long.

InuYasha bit back his breath, trying to withold any movement. He was drawn to her like wind to a wildfire. Kagome's eyes fell half-lidded as they silently moved to close the distance in between them.

A fraction of an inch remainded in between them. Hesitation hovered along their wills, stopping them short of what they wanted. InuYasha felt Kagome's breath upon his skin and shivered at the sensation.

His mouth parted slightly, hoping that he could taste her. The woman felt his hands bravely wind in her hair, bridging the gap in between them.

Kagome moved her lips in time with his, trying to figure out the feeling that rested within the kiss. It was curious, soft for a first.

The tired haze that had loomed over her was gone, replacing the feeling with an electricity that surged in an overwhelming presence. InuYasha pulled her on top of him, probing her mouth gently to feel the smoothness of her tongue.

Her body was tingling, nervous at the contact.

The man coiled his legs as to keep her away from a possible fright. Having her feeling his hardened state was something she didn't need. Delicately, he nipped at her lip, eliciting a gasp.

The woman pressed all of her worry and woe to the corner of her mind. Even if he wasn't a knight in shining armor, or would be trusted after she could stand on her own, he at least was deserving of this moment.

Graditude sumerged her when she realized how easy he was with her. He treated each touch as though it was cautious, not to frighten her away. It was against her better judgement to have catalyzed this result.

InuYasha indulged in the feeling of her weight upon him, crushing him with her warm skin and the nervous beating of her heart. It had only been a few blurry moments that felt like hours, but she pulled away when her thoughts tumbled over the walls she had built.

Leaning back, the woman ran a hand through her hair, looking down upon his flushed face as though she had defiled him. He eyed her with the same emotion. Neither of them spoke as the girl tried to gain her footing when she stepped onto the floor.

Her knees betrayed her, leaving her stumbling. InuYasha grabbed her hand, only to be pulled off the bed by her weight. He cut his foot on the nightstand, sending a stream of cursing out of his mouth as he fell atop of her.

Kagome's face was still red, puffy from the blood that puckered its lips against the palest layer of her skin. The girl closed her eyes, feeling the wave of embarrassment finally hit her like a slap to the face.

InuYasha turned away, trying to climb off of her when the sound of the door handle jostling made them freeze in place. The man's foot was bleeding, dripping along the wooden floor as his eyes caught the mortified expression of his adopted grandmother.

Kaede-baba held her chest, her heart beating faster than the pattering of childrens feet. Those old eyes of hers could have lied, but instead, they showed her the truth that she believed was true.

Looking beneath the son of a bitch, as she thought, laid her granddaughter, sprawled out and compromised.

Kagome's mouth hung ajar as tears formed like the dew on the leaves. Her lashes were soaked by the time that InuYasha had realized what had happened. Immediately, he pushed himself off of her and hopped on his good foot to sit on the side of the bed.

Kagome scrambled to her feet as Kaede barreled into her, wrapping her bony arms around her waist. Every inch of the old woman was rattling, shaken by the sheer sight of the girl. Her voice whailed like a siren's howl, beckoning the sailors to meet their deaths.

Kagome's thin hands gripped to her, hating herself solely for hiding from her beloved family. Kaede could barely jar the moment to curse and spit at InuYasha for his insolence.

Her soul was at ease again! Baba cried. The home that they had built was a shamble and a shell of what it had been in its glory, but none of that mattered anymore. The girl in her arms dragged her fingers in response, applying reassuring pressure.

"Baba." Kagome whispered, strained and almost mute. Her fear was gone completely as she felt the only familiarity she'd ever known. "I'm sorry you were worried." She sniveled, leaning back to look at the deeply formed lines in the woman's face.

Kaede pulled out her hankerchief, wiping away her face of the inundation. How glorious a sight it was to see her darling grandchild. Relief resounded in the room as a rekindled gentleness and joy filled Baba's eyes.

She inspected how Kagome had aged in the short time she was gone. Her eyes were no longer glistening with hope, or the love that she had yearned to hold. She was a version of herself that needed to be tended to like the flowers in the spring, Kaede thought.

The old woman's briar like hands cupped her cheeks and placed a kisses on either side of her face. "I'm just-just so glad you're home, Kagome." She sobbed, sounding garbled and distressed.

The young woman leaned into her palms and sniveled as she turned to look towards where InuYasha sat, watching the women faun upon one another. Uncertainty was rampant in his mind as he saw the devilish glare that Kaede cast in his direction.

He felt ill for a moment before he heard Kagome's delicate voice premeate through the room.

"Please don't be mad at InuYasha. He's taken really good care of me. I begged him not to tell you, I wasn't ready for you to-" Kagome gripped her face as she let out a strangled cry. "...to see me like _this_. That man did terrible things to me. InuYasha saved me."

The man flushed, finding her words to be far more romantic than the actual events had been. He pressed a worried smile on his face as he blotted the blood from his foot. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, Baba." He glowered, finding his head falling to catch the brown hue of the floor.

Old Baba scowled at him, but she couldn't say anything that she was thinking. She was too kind a person to utter such fowl language. Besides, if what Kagome said was true, then whatever she said would surely break the girl's fragile heart more than it already was.

Sucking back a sigh, the woman shook her head, gray hair fluttering. "I didn't expect any of this when I came home. Papa isn't going to make it, Kagome. I had to come and gather up some of the things that he wanted." She winced, trying her best to be realistic.

It was no secret that death was coming. It knocked on their door plenty of times and they had evaded it with sheer luck. Fate had already been too kind to them for letting Kagome grace their lives again, asking for a second gift was too much.

InuYasha felt remorse cut through him as he hobbled to his feet. "I'll go get his things if you want. You need to spend some time with her and I'm pretty sure you don't want to see my face for a while." He interjected, feeling her dark gaze set him aflame.

Kaede shooed the boy away, leaving him to the chill that wafted through the rest of the house.

Deep down, InuYasha knew that being here was going to be the death of him. It seemed that the further he got into peoples business, the more it got him into trouble. The only good thing that he'd gained out of morning was stupidly kissing Kagome.

She deserved far better than him, he scowled as he buried himself with the confines of Kaede-baba's wrecked bedroom. No matter how badly he wanted to forget, he would never be outrun the hurricane that was done the hall.


	13. Refrain

**AN:**

**ninjamidori: I live like 30 minutes from Louisiana. I used to live in Austin.**

**And Kaede was super pissed. ;D**

**Child of Dreamz: There are going to be a lot of trials coming up in the next couple of chapters. I was so happy that everyone enjoyed the kiss. I wanted to wait a little longer, but I had to write it. **

**SexyxAngelx09: Everyone loves at least a little fluff. Haha.**

**Anime Lady PIMP: I knew you would! It was my favorite to write, too. ;D**

**SIDE NOTE;**

**I'm going to be posting a Valentine's Day one shot later tonight, if I can stop playing SCV. - I thought it would be fun. Haha.**

**Short, simple, reflective.**

**The next chapter is a monster. There's going to be a lot of things going on that I've been waiting for, some good, some bad.**

**Let me know what you guys think.**

**Thank you to my reviewers and my readers!**

**Enjoy**

**Chapter 13**

_**Refrain**_

A ballerina can only dance as long as the twine of a music box is wound, playing its sweet melody for her to exist in the moment. Kagome felt like that ballerina. She was built up only to fall back down in the nothingness that came before she was twisted into alertness.

Kaede-baba was a mess, and it pained her to see her grandmother ailing so physically. The wrinkles around her eyes were still hanging like the broken frames in her old house. It was nice to escape the confines of the inn with her, searching for a quick bite to eat.

Kagome had insisted, when the subject of InuYasha had his manly aires had come to conversation, that he had not taken advantage of her, or suggested she do anything against her will.

The old woman had fanned away the aggression and doubt when she was told of what he had done. It surprised her to the very core that InuYasha had had it in him to defend them the way he had. It was as if he had been painted a fox.

The girl was proudly defensive, losing her wary facade to become a bold incarnation of her former self. He brought that out in her, and in some way, she felt as though he was worth protecting.

Kaede had relented and focused on the very essence of the woman that walked tall beside her. Every movement was recorded for future reference, as though she would disappear again. The light in her eyes gradually would return, but that old InuYasha seemed to have gotten the better of her.

Kagome spoke about the days that she'd spent with him as though they had been made of the same mold. It had been strange to see the girl so overwhelmingly taken by the man, but Kaede and longed to see her feel _true emotion_.

Not just the trivial lusts and losses of summer loves and gently passing breezes as they kissed her skin. _Real, raw emotion_.

Her granddaughter had been a precarious woman before Bankotsu, and she didn't want to see her submerge herself into the life that her father had drowned in. The idea filled Kaede's mouth with a sour taste, clinging to her tongue like a film.

There was no way in hell that Kagome would ever end up a fiend like her father, she scowled inwardly. She kept her caring expression as her thoughts wilted like the death of the seasons. That worry would be there as long as she lived.

Closing her dark eyes, Kaede-baba held Kagome's small hand as she guided her to the hospital. The girl clenched onto her grandmother's hand, searching for a comfort that wouldn't become fruitful.

The building was haunting, new to her as she had never seen it before with her own eyes. Albeit, she had many times. It just never seemed so empty, so ravenous.

Kaede had bought the girl a new kimono, as tradional as she was. At the store, she'd pinned Kagome into the white and red silk, and buried her beneath the layers of cotton. She was half frozen by the time they made it into the building, feeling the heat prick at her pale skin.

Instantaneously, the young woman's eyes searched for a familiar she didn't see Sango, her heart collapsed. It was almost too trying to set foot in that place without at least seeing her smiling face.

Kaede arched a brow and placed her talon like hand upon Kagome's back. "Are you looking for Sango, sweetheart?" She asked shakily, as she guided the girl along a routined path to the elevators.

The girl closed her eyes, nodding softly. Her convictions were only as strong as she was, and it was evident she was waning in tensity as if she was a dying candle.

As the plated doors opened like a mouth and closed to chew its prey, the old woman held looked up at the woman's face with a soft grin. "InuYasha didn't tell you?" She asked, keeping herself from jostling with the rickety pulls of the cart.

Kagome furrowed her brows, "Are they?" The woman's stomach dropped as she imagined them as a couple. A rage struck her and she clenched her jaw jealously as her grandmother shook her head.

"They tried," She sighed. "Little Sango is in Tokyo with the boy who lost his father a last year." Her words were were slow, methodical just like movements.

Kagome found herself bothered by the sheer idea of them together and she made it a point to say something to the man when she saw him. The little boy, on the other hand made her feel nervous. He was there _that _day.

Closing her eyes, she washed away the memory and followed the old woman's shadow through the winding hallways. "So, how is Shippo, anyway?" She asked gingerly, dejected by the lost souls that meandered throughout the walls of this ailing museum.

Kaede-baba sucked in a sigh as she brought her beloved's belongings to her chest. Holding them, she stopped in front of the door that kept him hidden from the rest of the world. How many nights she'd spent in those confines, praying and begging him to just relax and let himself go.

It was something that she had accepted, and knew would end his suffering. Tears pricked at her sunken pools, rippling them with their disturbance. A moment had passed before she let Kagome's words register.

When they did, the woman's expression was exasperated. "That boy doesn't tell you much of anything, does he?" She chided, wipping her nose with her thumb.

Kagome scowled, a blush hitting her like a cinderblock. "Obviously not. It's not like he's supposed to."

Her grandmother saw the innocence in her shine through and it made her laugh. It was throaty and quiet, like a harumph. "He was adopted when his mother passed recently." Kaede arched a brow seeing the girl's hand wipe across her face.

"That's terrible, he's been through so much." Kagome said with a sigh. "I hope that he has a good home, now. I assume he's living with Sango?" Her gray eyes darted across the knowing lines on Baba's face.

"Kagome," She said quietly, nudging her head to the door. "InuYasha is his father, now. I should have known better than to persecute him as I did, because he is a _good_ boy."

The girl's mouth when slack as Kaede's words filled the hallway with a regretable resonance. She wasn't sure what to think of him, anymore. All of the doubt in her head seemed to be clouded by the solidification of _trust_.

"You mean that he _really_ meant that he _lived_ here?" Kagome inquired finding it hard to wrap her head around all of the buzzing static.

Kaede nodded, licking her parched lips as she finally placed her hand upon the chipping handle. "Yes, Kagome. He takes good care of everyone and everything, even if its to his own detriment, as you've seen." She let out a warning sigh, and steeled herself the best she could. "We need to go see Papa, and I don't want you to be alarmed."

Kagome nodded, bracing herself as she pressed on the most fictious and memorable version of her former self. Her mind was flooded with poise, trying to keep her composure as tight as possible.

Yet, nothing could have prepared her for the sight that laid beyond the threshold.

It was about as alarming as the feelings that crawled all over InuYasha's skin as he frantically cleaned the old inn. His hands couldn't press the rag hard enough against the worn floor. The blood stains were still everywhere, just a little less noticeable.

A foul taste replaced Kagome's flavor. He'd been savoring the feeling of her soft mouth, rolling across his like the warmth of a shower. If she had been there, he would have been flustered, dumbstruck by the sheer sight of her.

He wasn't sure how it had even really happened. Then again, he wasn't aware of half of what had happened to him until it was nothing more than an arduous afterthought. Plopping down, he tossed the soggy rag down with a digusting plop.

The smell of bleach was damaging and so stout that he could barely recall what fresh air had smelled like. He brought his knees to his lanky chest, laying his arms across them.

For just a moment, he laid his head in the crook of his arm, reveling in the silence. It had been something he feared, but absorbed when it was offered to him. He needed to go back to Tokyo, but he couldn't just leave.

Kaede-baba was probably still beyond pissed at him for hiding Kagome, but he hadn't done a damn thing wrong, in his eyes. He obeyed the girl's wishes, and they were understandable. Albeit, lying was something that he had never been particularly fond of, as they knew.

With a sigh, he tried to shake a rush of panic from taking over him. The image of Bankotsu's bloated dead body resonated in his mind. He was floating like a boat, drifting across the water as his flesh fell apart.

Vomit crept in his throat, clenching his airways with the putrid burning. Shaking his head couldn't clean the blood on his hands, he scowled. He had to redeem himself, somehow, and that was making this whole ordeal with Kagome more unbearable.

Pushing himself to his feet, he picked up the rag and began his labor again. The sooner the dried, flaky pallets of blood were gone, the sooner he could begin to forget that he was a murderer.

He and Kagome were kindred in so many ways that it was astounding. Both of them had nerves like chicken wire, and were just about as needy as they come - though, neither would admit the fault.

Bankotsu had fucked them both up and he couldn't forget that feeling. Glowering, InuYasha's tired eyes looked at the clock and forced himself to move across the house, picking up lingering boards and shelving he needed to repair.

There wasn't much left to do, and it made his impending trip that much easier. He just needed to figure out how to get ahold of Sango. Baba probably knew, and worry was eating at him about Shippo.

He'd kind of enjoy taking him out for a bike ride. It would definitely help break the tension between he and Kagome if he was around. Hell, _anything_ would be of help to ease the tension.

Clenching his fists, he scowled at the floor. Why did he feel like he was developing feelings for her? _Actual feelings_. The kind of feelings that would either destroy him, or make him.

It bothered him as he pulled his shirt from his body. The fabric met the floor, followed by his jeans and socks as he meandered into the bathroom. His shower was the only thing he could genuinely look forward to.

He'd have to face the world afterwords, and feed himself, he remembered. Turning on the gargling faucet, he hit it a couple of times to make it spit out the sludge. A dirty hand wound through his matted hair.

"What the fuck am I even doing here?" The man asked himself, finding everything finally settling down. It was as if fate had chosen him as a pillar to build upon, and he wasn't very thrilled with how the outcome was turning out.

As he sat on the edge of the old tub, he looked down at his palms. They were twisted with lines and weathersome reminders of his prior life. Those were the same hands that caressed Kagome's soft skin, bathed his son, used tools...

It disgusted him that his hands _betrayed_ him.

The let him _kill_ a man.

Grabbing the bottle of shampoo, he violently threw it at the wall. He let his head collapse in his hands and writhed beneath his fingers.

_Why in hell did he keep feeling like this?_

Every loud noise that wasn't caused by something that _he_ did made him jump. He was never a light sleeper, but found himself almost waking at the sound of a penny rolling across the floor.

InuYasha finally pushed himself into the tub full of hot water and submerged. By the end of the day, he had decided that he would be gone. Sango had all of his information and identification, anyway.

He could just pick that up from her when he got there. A sigh brushed past his lips as he scrubbed away the grit from his wet skin.

A heaviness pressured his lungs and heart as he thought of the kindness of Old Baba and Totosai. They deserved to live peacefully, and now that Kagome was back, they probably could.

They didn't rely on him as a replacement anymore, did they? Shippo still did, and would go wherever he did. That was comforting enough. Then again, if the boy wanted to see Old Baba, he'd have to travel half way across the country.

A sad smile fell on his lips, "Well, fuck me." He said, revolting at the growling of his stomach. "Guess I'm just about as screwed, huh?"

InuYasha let his heavy lids fall, isolating his thoughts behind the black blanket over his eyes. The first thing he saw was _her._ He'd gotten to know here through tall tales and the sweetness of the words she'd written in her diary.

That woman was something endearing. His body stirred at the thought of her resting atop of him. Warm blood surged into a boil, making his stomach jolt with a tingling sensation. He aptly opened his eyes to the murky surroundings and reached for the faucet.

There wasn't going to be any of _that._

The cold water that battered him made sure of it, as he chattered on his way out. If his conscious wanted to be cruel, he would have to bully it back.

The lanky man shivered beneath the wind the fan created as he grabbed his clothing from the wardrobe, dressing as warm as he could. He tied his hair back in a bun, hiding it beneath a toboggan.

The man headed towards the kitchen, slipping out to hop on his bike. A cigarette was pressed in his lips as he rode off into the early evening, wind kissing his face with a numbing cold.

When they were all tucked in for the night, he would vanish like the smoke that trailed behind him.


	14. Unresponsive

_**Unresponsive.**_

**AN:**

**Thank you for all of the reviews so far. I appreciate everyone and thank you for the encouragement. **

**I apologize for the lengthy delay in updating. My laptop was in the shop for almost two months and I broke a rib. :| I'd borrowed a friend's laptop for my LJ challenges, which I've placed 1st once and 2nd a handful of times! I normally post the stories at the close of the challenges on here, but if anyone would like to read any of the specialty work, by myself, or from the amazing authors in the community, they are called:**

**iyfic_contest**

**iy-fanfiction**

**iyisseikawa**

**first tweak**

**Happy reading my little dearests. Let me know what you think. Feedback is always appreciated, never expected. **

**And once again, thank you for everything. **

Her heart strings strummed chords to a song she had wanted to erase. That was the entirity of life, it seemed. The loosened skin on her grandmother's face appeared to melt like candlewax. She couldn't grasp how unresponsive Old Totosai had become. Her hands clung to his sheets, wilting against his legs like leaves.

Kagome felt ill. The scene played in a loop as her weary body crept into the old inn silently. Her grandfather had been ultimately overcome by the sedatives to kill his pain. It left her overwhelmed to see the wiry man so frail. Kaede had kindly hired a rickshaw driver to cart her home on his way to the market.

It seemed like the air in the town had changed, leaving her sour and bitter as the applecore InuYasha had left on the counter. Her kimono was muddied by the dirt on the seat as she plopped down, hoping to disolve into the shoddy woodwork.

The girl swallowed, clutching her head in her hand. It ached, thrumming with the presence of building pressure. She wanted to escape, just for a little while. The feeling of isolation kicked in, leaving a foul taste in her mouth.

As she looked at the clock, panic licked her senses clean of rationality.

"He's normally back by now," Kagome glowered, looking down at her tabi. "I wonder where he could be." She sighed as she skidded the chair across the floor. Walking to the sliding glass door, she parted it slightly to see the precipitation begin to flush away the snow.

Part of her wanted to see him hunkered down on the bottom of the step. It was something about the smell of cigarettes that comforted her. It was like she could always tell when he was around, or at least _had _been around.

There was something about the ticking clock that maddened her as she dragged her fingers down the glass in disappointment. Absently, she headed towards her grandparents room and plopped down on their patchwork quilt, which her mother had made.

Kagome closed her eyes, washing the fabric with her hands. She felt the love within the stitching and unfurled. The emotions she had hidden finally erupted into a furious whail. Seeing her family fall into the darkness was something she had never dreamt of.

There, in that bed, she had laid with her mother. She had told her stories of far away lands and adventurous heroines from the local myth. It hadn't mattered where they had moved, or where they had been. That bed was something that tied her to what was lost to her.

"Everything I touch dies." The girl sniveled, brushing away the grit on her face with the sleeve of her kimono. The silk felt like sandpaper against her raw skin. These relfective moments seemed to inundate her with puncturing wounds that never healed.

"I can't do this. I can't be here. I can't." Kagome rasped, violently ripping herself from the invisible hands that kept her grounded. She had strength, didn't she? She wasn't helpless. _She wasn't._

Part of her wanted to linger in the warmth of the bed, but the rest of her forced her forward. Her body drove her into the hallway, directing her to he vancancy of her room. For a moment, she stood with her hands clutched to her chest.

Her sore eyes couldn't look at this place anymore.

This wasn't her. This wasn't who she was now. These pointing fingers could no longer suggest the proper pathway to follow. Her grandfather was dying. Her mother was a ghost, and she wouldn't allow herself to be.

The poison atmosphere burned her lungs as she breathed in the fumes of dust and decay. The remaining scent of cigarettes crushed her senses with a want that she longed for. As she exhaled, Kagome tore the kimono from her body to stand bare in front of the wardrobe.

There was no sense in staying in the decimation, was there? She just needed a moment. Just that one fleeting second to exist without the world reminding her of what happened to her, and what had transpired between the lines of the written story.

Bankotsu had no baring on her any longer. Her father didn't own her freedom, her grandparents needed peace, and she...

Kagome smiled sadly at the clothes, running her fingers along the Braille of the fabric. She was aware that InuYasha wasn't the answer. He was as broken of a person as she was, and their tether was as thin as paper.

Yet, as she felt the softness of his coat, she felt a jolt of heat burn her fingers. He meant something to her, but she wasn't sure what it was. He could be her lover to keep the coldness of winter away, she thought quietly.

It was strange that her heart didn't accelerate, or even skip a beat as she thought of him. Maybe, she sighed, there was something missing from the puzzle. Perhaps, it was the exhaustion of the day that made her feel so hollow. Yet, it had been like that with Koga. He was always traveling, never stationed in one place.

She knew that he had someone else. It had been nice to feel something new, and so enthralling. Bankotsu, he was special, and she'd loved him in an awkward way - or things about him. It hadn't entirely been his fault that he had done the things that he did, but she could no longer justify the crassness of his pyschosis.

A scoff kicked the back of her throat. How could she rationalize him and her feelings towards him? He had captured her and whisk her away in the broad daylight. It was as if all of the corruption had washed her brain of sense. Nothing connected. Her way of thinking was sordid, completely.

Time had inevitably stopped in its tracks as she jerked the coat and warm clothes from the closet. A bit at her, as she buried herself within the winter clothes and expunged the memory from her head. Kaede-bachan was coming home in the morning. Tonight was all she needed to feel anything but _this_.

"My god, I want to vomit." The girl said, ringing her hair with her hands as she turned around. Her eyes fell on the bed, and she paused. Heat charred her cheeks.

"InuYasha..." She murmured, running her fingers across her lips. She'd thought about that kiss all day. Even in the hospital, she'd felt guilty for thinking of him.

Allowing herself to attach herself to another person was a defense mechanism. She knew it. Closing her eyes, she shook him from her head and headed for the kitchen. The pantry was where they had stashed money they had found, and she plucked out a handful.

On her way to the diner, she passed by the train station, finding it hard to ignore InuYasha kicking his breaking bike. He was making a scene, whether he meant to or not. Kagome took it upon herself to weave through the icy patches and up to the platform.

When he saw her, it was if all of the air in his lungs had been pressed out with a pair of cinderblocks. He looked like a lot like a wily cat trying to escape the force of a broom.

Kagome nuzzled in _her_ coat and tried to think of something to say. InuYasha didn't seem as though he wanted to talk to her, or see her for that matter. What had she done to drive him away? She wondered in a mute panic.

The best that she could do, under the circumstance, was smile awkwardly and sway like a wayward teenage girl; hands flittering behind her back. "So, this is where you've been." She said as gently and content as she could muster.

InuYasha nodded awkwardly, "Yeah, I'm trying to get out of here for a minute." He cleared his throat, finally giving up on the heap of metal beside him.

The girl furrowed her brows in confusion. He was leaving her, too? All of the subtle motions she'd been able to maintain had washed away. Her defensive behaviors started to take control of her, leaving the atmosphere riddled with tension.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Kagome strangled, trying to remain passive. Her heartbeat tested her abilities and left her a blotchy mess.

InuYasha shrugged, not looking her in the eye. "I-uh, I didn't want to bother you with it. It's just something I have to do." He said nonchalantly, taking the time to remove his bag from the basket of the bike. "It's only a few days..."

"Still, it's a small town, InuYasha! Don't you think that I would have found out, anyway?" Kagome hissed, shoving her thin hands against his chest.

InuYasha gritted his teeth, fumbling to grab her flailing arms. He didn't think that she would have been this broken up about him leaving for a few days, or so he told her. "Dammit, Kagome! Calm down for just a fucking second." He hissed, finally gaining dominance over her.

The girl huffed against the cold night, spilling her heat into the air. "Let go of me." She rasped venomously, jerking her body against his grip.

The man rolled his eyes, and pushed her against the side of the old station. He held her arms against her chest, creating a barrier to rest between them. "Calm down. I'm a lot stronger than you, and I'm not going to hurt you, but you have to stop freaking out."

Kagome blew her bangs from her eyes, "I don't need you telling me what to do, InuYasha. I have a choice in everything I do, don't I?" She snarled, finding her couragousness to falter.

InuYasha leaned down, pressing the warmth of his mouth against Kagome's ear. It rattled her senses with an overbearing wave of nervousness and desire. Closing her eyes, she sank back against the cold wall to steady her quivering body.

"Are you going to calm down?" He rasped, hovering for a moment as if to inhale the sweetness in the air around her. An ache pulled at his abdomen, making him lean away from her. Kagome parted her mouth as she looked up at his tired eyes.

He wanted to say something, she could tell. Yet, he refrained as he released her arms and let them fall slack against her sides. Kagome stared at his tawny eyes intently. She was trying to read the literature hidden beneath his dusty cover.

The night was swallowing them in the dimly flickering light of the station. She felt like stripping of her coat to soothe the fire lighting her pores, but refrained.

"When are you coming back, InuYasha?" Kagome asked with a sordid sadness in her voice as she watched the man pluck a cigarette from his pocket.

A smirk hit his lips, "I'm not." He said in earnest. Those words hit the woman like a plague, rotting the hope from her bones.

Kagome's mouth fell and the rosiness in her cheeks bled white. The sound of his voice wavered and shook as though he hadn't wanted to tell her the truth. "You were going to leave without telling me?" She asked, furrowing her thin brows.

InuYasha chewed at his lip, inhaling his cigarette. A sad smile fell on his face as he placed a heavy hand upon her shoulder. "You have a life here, you know? I've got enough money to go back home and rebuild my life."

Kagome winced, "You think that watching my family suffer is the life that I want? There's nothing that I can do for them to change anything. I'm glad I was able to see them, but do you think that Jiji and Baba are going to live without one another?"

"Don't tell me that you don't want to be here. You wouldn't have bothered staying if you didn't." The man snapped, looking down upon her watery expression.

"I came back because I had to. I love them more than anything, don't question that. They have too much to worry about without me here. They're done worrying about me now that they know I'm alive." Kagome said, jerking the cigarette from the man's fingers.

She sucked in a harsh drag, trying her best not to cough. When the green hit her skin, InuYasha scoffed at her and took it away. "Don't act like you're grown up, because you're not."

Kagome clenched her jaw, finding every ounce of her being to burst with undescribable pressure. It ached like a thorn in her side. She kicked the slush away from her feet and shoved the man away from her.

"Stay the fuck away from me if all you're going to do is belittle me as though I'm a child." She said ruefully, turning her eyes to the glimmering lights across the town. "You don't understand how my mind works, InuYasha. It's not like a normal human being. After everything that happened to me - the abuse, the abandonment, the killing, everything - don't you think that at some point I'd be able to make my own decisions?"

InuYasha stood in silence, slicking a hand over his face. He pulled the toboggan from his head and shucked it on the ground, letting his hair down. He caught the look she gave him over her shoulder. It was as intense as the radiation from a mushroom cloud during a nuclear war.

The tension between them surmounted. He wanted to tell her he had wanted to take her with him, to have her to himself. The selfishness of his thoughts was almost overwhelming. The feelings that she raised in his stomach, and in the back of his head, made him nauseaous.

"You have nothing to say?" Kagome spat, inspecting his face as though the wrinkles around his eyes were holding them open.

"What do you even want with me?" He asked, raising his arms in a defensive manner. "I don't love you. I don't want anything from you. I just want to go back to Tokyo and start my life over with my son, alright? Am I being selfish for that?"

Sick to her stomach, Kagome looked away from him and clenched the front of the coat she wore. _There_ was what was absent her ruminations from before. That annoying facade that he wore like a glove. He was no more than a boy trying to be a man. InuYasha was terrified of what he felt, and she knew it.

Hell, she was afraid herself. The feeling of being around him was almost euphoric in misery around her. She bared herself as though she would shake him, or slap the shit out of him if she looked at him again.

All of those wily thoughts pressed to the front of her head, and she could no longer contain her forboding jealously.

"No, you're not being selfish for that." Kagome gritted softly, closing her eyes as she let the words spill from her mouth. "But, are you in love with Sango?" She asked poignantly, finally finding the courage to face him.

InuYasha gaped at her for a moment. His hands absently gripped to her shoulders, lending him a pillar to lean against as he knelt down to her level.

"There is nothing between me and Sango." He said methodically. "Nothing. How did you even know about her, anyway?" He asked with an arched brow.

"InuYasha, she's my best friend. Baba told me earlier today." Kagome replied in nothing more than a whisper. Her heart thrummed a steady tune, becoming louder than the waves that crashed nearby. "If you didn't want me, then why did you kiss me?"

InuYasha inhaled sharply, finding it almost painful. He could lie to her some more, couldn't he? The answer was so much more dire than he allowed. He couldn't let her in. She didn't need him to be a whole person.

When no answer came, Kagome shook her head and pushed his hands from her shoulders. "It was nice knowing you, InuYasha. Thank you for taking care of me and protecting my family." She wanted to let her upset envelope her, but pressed on as she walked down the slick steps.

InuYasha was catatonic. Where had that part of her came from? It was like someone had flipped a switch and she was voracious and headstrong. He wanted to chase after her, but merely stood with a foot in his mouth.

Kagome looked like a ghost breezing across the melting snow. He lost her somewhere between the nearby intersection and the parcel of buildings.

Part of him was transfixed upon platform when he began to move. It was blind. His long legs pushed him past the platform, disregarding his parked bike, as he blew through the street. His mind refused to connect the dots that his heart had drawn for him.

InuYasha merely became a marionette to his own feelings, and let them guide him through the mud towards the sea. He knew deep down that was where she was, and his body ached as he fought the cold.

Panting, his slowed his pace, relaxing his body against a newer home in the community. "I'm a stupid motherfucker." He breathed, trying to collect his shaking nerves and stop his adrenaline from flaring.

His dark eyes searched the expanse of driftwood and rocks for her. It was hard to see much of anything, besides the illumination of the lighthouse in the distance. Momentarily, he waited to see if she would come around.

When she didn't, he began to walk down the beach to the pier. His hands were shamefully stuck in his pockets when he found her, hunkered down against a knotted pole. Her body was diminutive against the large pieces of wood, and he sighed.

Guilt was a two way street. Kikyo would have wanted him to be happy, but not replace the feeling he held for her as he did. How was that supposed to make him feel? Kagome was someone he barely knew, yet he felt electric around her.

And, even now, no matter how mad he was at her, he couldn't stand to see this distress in her body language. Grimacing, the man gently swung a hand along a pole, feeling the dampness in the knitting.

Kagome heard his footsteps, and turned around abruptly. Her hands clutched her chest as she inspected him. "What do you want?"

InuYasha looked down at his shoes, shuffling them around. He felt like a teenager again. Having to suffer the humiliation of telling your first love you liked them.

"If you're not going to say anything you may as well leave." Kagome said defiantly, brushing hair from her face.

The man nodded, and looked out to the hungry sea. His hands quivered as he stepped closer to her, finding her. She needed him, and he knew that. If he had left without her, the girl would have fallen apart and became a decoration, instead of a person.

Licking his lip, he found her hand and grabbed it, pulling her into his chest. She gripped to him, reveling his in his warmth and that _smell_. She breathed him in as he held her. Kagome's mind wandered to the treacherous territories she'd seldom gone and it frightened her.

A few blurry minutes had passed when his hand snuck in between them, raising her chin up. Kagome's eyes quaked with an unpresidented emotion. It was raw, viseral, and genuine. It wasn't something that she had to pretend.

InuYasha chewed at his lip as he mulled over what to say. "I won't leave without you, but you know what you have to do. I won't leave you alone here. I can't make the choices you're going to have to make."

Kagome wasn't expecting honesty. She was expecting an explosion of colors and fire melting her from her very center. Instead, it was this. This rationality that she didn't want. But, instead of fighting, she turned her eyes away and nodded.

InuYasha sighed in relief as he let his hand glide along her arm. "Come on, lets go to the hospital and get your things."

Kagome resented the heartbreak she was about to cause. It was needless. Was this a message he was trying to get across to her? If it was, it was cruel. With a sigh, she followed him back towards the town.

As she looked over her shoulder at the murky waves, she felt her old life slip from between her fingers. What laid before her was something that she could barely imagine. Whether it was good or not, well, that was up to the interpretation of what would have been considered such.

**AN: **

**I'm tinkering with the next chapter tonight so I can have it posted in the morning. **

**Thanks for all of the support so far. I'm happy to be back and writing again. **

**Let me know what you think; Too much, too little. **

**:)**

**~ Jiru**


	15. Subversive

_**Subversive**_

**AN:**

**Sorry if this chapter seems a bit intense. I'm linking everything together in the next couple of chapters, and making sense of the mess. There's a little taste of the big picture and the problem that's about to come to a head.**

**Feedback is always appreciated, never expected.**

**ninjamidori; THANKS. I'm so glad to be back!**

**SexyxAngelx09 Thank you too for the warm welcome. I'm glad that you guys are still enjoying it and being so supportive.**

**Anime Lady PIMP; She's going to be alright, I think. Kaede is a strong woman. ;)**

**Thank you as always to my readers and reviewers.**

The cold blanket unfurled, letting tiny droplets of rain to decimate the snowy streets; washing away the beauty of white. It seemed that the world washed away the death, which grasped Nippon with iron fingers.

It was dreary blackhole that had sucked the attention of a stout man, vacantly looking out of his window. A fire crackled warmly in the corner of his ornate apartment, overseeing the preoccupation of tired that loomed in his eyes.

He was worn down, perturbed by the absence of particular phone calls which used to be more frequent than not. Idly, his lanky fingers toyed with the rim of his brandy glass. He was calm, collected as his peon combed his dark hair.

The man was young for a person of his status, but the stress of his life had struck his face with wrinkles and graying hair in places he kept hidden. As he reached for his phone, shooing away the maid, he slumped back in his gawdy chair.

"Well, Bankotsu," He murmured as he inspected the numerous calls. "It looks like you've finally given up. No one wanted that girl around here." He sighed, taking a sip of his drink. "She doesn't need to be involved in this."

A few calls came from some of his familiars and left a sour taste in his mouth. Whenever he received those calls, it seemed as though something was going wrong. Glowering, he pulled his leather wallet from his pocket, flipping through the plastic to find a photo of Kagome. A smooth thumb ran over it, reminding him of the childhood she had.

Part of him felt remorse for leaving her, and involuntarily involving her in this mess. Yet, it was just business. If she became a factor, then she would be treated as nothing more than a hinderance to the greater plan.

In someway, everything that he had built had been for her. The loss of her mother, _his _wife, had been so detrimental that lashing out was the only feesible way to survive.

And, as he closed his eyes, tucking his wallet back from whence it came, Naraku replaced the displeasure with a stout, powdery euphoria.

Numbing his senses made the entire ordeal more manageable. His dark eyes fell upon the brass clock on the wall. It was time for more business. There was no rest for the wicked, it seemed. His nimble hands dialed out a familiar number, finding solace in the fact that the woman answered on the first ring.

"Hello?"

"Well, good evening darling." Naraku smiled, wooing the woman smoothly.

"How are you tonight, sir? I take it you've had a busy couple of days."

"There is no such thing as a couple of days. It's part of the job, sweetheart." He paused, raising his body from his chair. "Listen, have you heard anything from that cretin, Bankotsu, lately?"

"No, I haven't. I don't believe that Koga has either."

"Have you heard anything from your husband?"

"Not since the tramp came to town and started flying off the handle." Ayame quipped sardonically.

"Oh?" Biting his lower lip in interest, he cleaned forward in his chair. "Who might this be?"

"She was a friend that started spouting off about that no good Ito boy. She and Miroku had a relationship off and on, and I assume that he's been crammed further up her ass than shit."

"Well, Ayame, that's a lovely story. But, what the fuck is this business about Ito-san?" Naraku scoffed into the phone, wiping a hand across his mouth.

"Apparently, he's close to my friend and has a son. He's living in Akita, why?" _Worry. _An astringent emotion that she seldom felt, crept into her veins like a disease.

"It amazes me that no one in this goddamned establishment can do their jobs correctly!" Naraku yelled into the speaker. This was news that he had never expected to hear. That man was the reason that Bankotsu was up his ass for so long. He was nothing but an ant, but he caused more financial woes that he could imagine.

"I assumed that he was dead and gone since I got rid of him." "He had no place to go and the winter was brutal this year, I would have figured..."

"You figured wrong."

"I don't understand why this is such a big deal."

'Ayame, if you want to remain alive, you best tell me everything that you know."

"I'm pregnant, Naraku. You would really do that to me?" The woman's voice was rushed, ill with the smothering fear that gripped to her throat.

"You assume I have feelings towards you, which I don't. You come over tomorrow morning and have a written report of everything that you know, or can find out." Naraku demaned, lighting his cigar with the fire.

"I haven't spoken to my friend in several days." Ayame said, trying to reason with the nefarious man.

"Find her, or I will." He said calmly, as though it didn't matter. And to him, it didn't.

The conversation died, leaving Ayame gripping to her brow. It was the first time real panic had set in for her. Never in her life had she felt guilt. But, _this _was karma's retribution for the bad deeds that she had done.

Nausea struck her quivering nerves, making her frantic in her efforts to plow through her drawers for Miroku's address. She didn't have time to call, she had to see them. Koga wasn't due home for at least two more days.

Drawers and cabinets flew open, sending paper flying in disarray. Never had her body, or her home, looked as disasterous as it did within those five minutes. When the frenzy eased, Ayame slammed her palms down upon her marble counter. She huffed, looking towards her womb.

The address was laying in front of her. Swallowing, she closed her eyes and blindly grabbed the paper and her coat from the rack. There was no time to make pity calls, or find comfort in anything.

She wasn't sure if it was selfishness that kept her from telling Naraku Sango's name, or if it had been for sheer concern that she may be killed. This game was becoming far to dangerous for even her liking.

As she walked out the door, Ayame clutched to the breast of her coat, hoping that this would pass as swiftly as it came.

Worry was the furthest thing from the occupants in the mura.

The smell of a hot stew filled the shanty house with warmth. Sango was relaxed, stirrying the giant pot with vigor. Shippo sat beside her, clean and dressed in his pajamas. It was nice to have the company while she cooked and talked about her day.

Miroku smiled at her from his perch at the table, going over his stacks of folders for work. Partially including the last few unsigned pages of his own divorce. His glasses sat ontop of his head as he chewed the end of his pen.

There was something soothing about the presence of a child, and this particular woman. It had only been a couple of days, but it was something that he'd have imagined to be real. This was the life that he had begged for, and finally received in such short passing.

A moment of serenity was worth the lifetime of emptiness to him. Sighing, the man grimaced at his paperwork and untied his noose. He'd barely noticed Buyo sitting in the adjacent chair, looking at a book that the boy had left open for him.

Brushing a hand through his hair, he sat his glasses down and plucked up the story book and grabbed Buyo from his lonesome seat. Sango eyed him with a grin, knowing that he was content as well.

"Shippo, would you like to come sit with me and read your new book?" The man waved to the boy sitting on the counter. Shippo's round cheeks raised tiredly as he looked at Sango for reassurance. He'd been so many places, and met so many people in the past few days that he was overwhelmed.

The trust of a child is so innocent, and once it's broken, it's unrepairable. Yet, Miroku breezed past the woman and placed a kiss upon her cheek. "Is that okay with you, Sango?" He asked, glancing down at the child. "I think he wants you to say it's okay." Miroku nudged.

The woman smirked, "Shippo, you can go with Miroku and read if you want. I'm right here, honey. I'm not going to go anywhere."

Shippo rubbed his eyes and sheepishly looked at the warmth in her face. "Thanks. Have you talked to InuYasha?" He asked, reaching for Miroku to help him off the counter top.

Sango shook her head, "No baby. I haven't. He's okay, though." Rin had been kind enough to pass along messages, but that was about it.

Miroku gave the woman a look, as if they would have to discuss him later. Earlier in the day, they had only moments of quiet before Shippo roused from his nap. Bed time was something they both looked forward to, leaving gaps to build bridges.

Sango nodded passively, watching the men folk scurry into the living room. If only her entire life could have been this peaceful. This place was like the answer to all of the prayers she'd had. Granted, it was only temporary.

It still made her heart swell with ease. She just didn't realize how fleeting of a feeling it was, as she her the faintest of taps at the door.

Sango furrowed her brows and glanced at Miroku reading to the child in his lap. Shippo was nearly asleep, snuggling Buyo to his chest. So, with a sigh, Sango wiped her hands on her towel and walked cautiously to the door.

The moment her hands parted the door, she saw Ayame. Her heart fell into her stomach and her skin crawled with distaste. "What do you want?" Sango whispered. "Do you need to see Miroku?"

"I should ask you why the hell you're still here, but I'm not. I need to talk to you." Ayame said as quietly as possible. She wrung her hands together, feeling the dampness pool in her palms.

Sango furrowed her brows and stepped onto the porch, shutting the door behind her. Defensively, the woman crossed her arms over her chest. The chill made her shudder as she danced from one foot to the other.

"What's going on?"

Reaching into her purse, Ayame pulled out a small pistol and held it nervously. "If you scream, I'll fucking shoot you myself."

Sango gaped in terror, ignoring the pounding of her heart. "Wh-what the fuck is going on?"

"Tell him you're going to the store. We need to talk." She demaned, nudging her head in the direction of the house. "If you say a word about me being her, I'll destroy everything that you care about."

Sango glared at the woman. She knew that Ayame was cruel, but she was no murderer. Something had to have happened to trigger this and she wasn't going to be apart of it. Closing her eyes, Sango forcefully punched the woman in the face, catching her off guard.

Miroku heard the clatter and bolted out of the door, chest heaving as his adrenaline spiked. "What the hell is going on? Are you alright? Oh my god!" He clammored, kneeling down to Ayame's body. He placed a hand on her womb, feeling the soft kick from her child.

"Okay, the baby's alright. I'm going to call an ambulance." The man quaked, looking at Sango as though she has committed a sin.

The woman showed him her bleeding hand, "I think I just broke my hand to keep her from fucking shooting me. She has a gun somewhere." She panted, "Is Shippo alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, he's fine." Miroku flailed, "What the hell happened?"

"I was cooking dinner and I thought I heard a knock, and when I checked..." Sango shrugged her shoulders. "This shit has been happening since I was in Akita. When Shippo and I left, InuYasha was supposed to come with me but there was a man shooting at him." The woman began to tremble as Miroku ran back outside with his phone.

"What do you mean there was a man shooting at him?" Miroku asked, dialing the emergency line.

"I-I-I don't know. He was tall and had a scar on his lip." Sango winced, cradling her hand as she shuffled to find Ayame's gun. "There it is."

A moment had passed, and Miroku glanced at the small object at the edge of the porch. "I want you to go inside and sit down, put some ice on your hand."

"I'm a nurse, I know." Sango said flatly, glancing back to Miroku as he scoured through his cellular.

When he was sure that she was inside, the man hunkered down next to his wife and rubbed her hand. If she hadn't been so wrapped up with herself, she would have been alright. It didn't matter the situation, the child she carried had interests above theirs.

This whole ordeal would have never happened had he not been involved to begin with. Every time he scrolled through his phone, he kept stopping on Bankotsu's name. Part of him wanted to dial the number. He had avoided dealing with him as much as possible.

The bad part about being someone's lawyer was that, good or bad, you still had to put on a brave face and defend the bastard that hired you.

When Ayame came to, he would figure out what the hell was going on and take care of the matter himself. It just terrified him that that matter may be something that he didn't believe in.

Though, as the whails and cries from the ambulance came creeping into his ears, he pushed it to the back of his head and resumed being the better man.

Sometimes, just like in InuYasha's case, being the better man just kept getting him into trouble. Kagome had clung to him like a child hanging onto a stuffed animal. He'd barely gotten enough time to go take a piss alone.

She had such a strange sense of rationality that it drowned him. The hospital was quiet, leaving no chance of him leaving without her. Someone would have promptly told her and it made even getting a soda from the machine hard.

But, it wasn't his place to tell her grandmother her feelings and the wants she had for herself. No, that was all Kagome. Every last agonizing bit of it was her choice.

And, as InuYasha slumped against the illuminated machine, he relished in the alone he had. The only thing he heard was the low hum of the refrigeration system kicking in, and the low whine of the crash carts skidding across the floors.

He didn't know what had happened to him. He was ready to leave these people alone, and let them exist the way they were meant to. And what happened? He caved like rocks in an avalanche as soon as those sooty eyes fell on him.

The man closed his eyes tightly, pinching at the bridge of his nose. He felt stupid for paying so much attention to her, and allowing herself to bind herself to him. It was like she was crawling in his blood, making him rage like a hurricane with want for her.

Kagome was damaging to him. She was poisoning his state of mind with this blatant failure to the plans he had made. No. It wasn't her fault, he conceeded.

It was his for falling for her. He felt like he was giving her a false hope that she could cling to. He was digusting.

Kaede had been in the hallway while they took Old Totosai's vitals, and he'd passed the girl off on her. He still hadn't seen the elderly man since they'd arrived. InuYasha wasn't sure of his condition, but he sure as hell wasn't leaving without seeing him, regardless.

It took him a while to slow his racing mind, but when he did, InuYasha reclined in one of the uncomfortable chairs. He stared at the red string on his shoe and played with the twine for a while.

It felt good to be blank.

Blank was what he needed.

Before long, he had lulled himself to a half sleep, leaving Kagome in the proverbial wolves den to be eaten and spit back out.

Down the hall, Kaede-baba was resting on her cot, knitting a scarf. Kagome was perched on her grandfather's bed, playing a game of cards with him. The night had faired much better for the old coot.

Dying or not, if they eased off the morphine, he could actually participate amongst the living; even if it was just a little bit hazy.

When he first saw Kagome, he had livened up a bit, curling his arms around her. He was careful not to tangle her in the web of tubing they had inserted into his plump veins.

She's told him a few stories of her time back home and what had happened the day she went missing. It was brief, and almost insincere. There was no need to dredge up the past, especially when she was the present.

There was a resounding sense of passiveness in the air. Kagome was unsure how to handle the gentleness in the room, but absorbed it as best as she could. She was antsy that InuYasha hadn't returned, but what could she do?

She wasn't about to excuse herself from her ailing family. And, it was that thought, as Old Totosai laughed his gruff laugh as he won the game, that she understood what he had meant. If she could tell them that she wanted to leave, to experience the freedom of her choice, then she could come with him.

A sad smile tugged at her lips as she sat down her colorful collection of fish print cards. "Good job, Jiji!" She exclaimed, finding his toothless grin adorable.

"Well," Totosai boasted weakly, adjusting on his pillows. "I had a little spark put back in me today, thanks to you being home." He wanted to ask her about a million things. Most of which, he had obsessed over in the past year.

Yet, he refrained for both of their sakes and breathed the clean oxygen from his nasal tubes.

"I'm glad that you're moving about a little, Papa." Kaede interjected, keeping her eyes focused on her fresh knitting thread. Cautiously, she configured it in the manner she wanted and laid it upon her lap.

Totosai slowly laid a hand out for her to take and eased back into the incline of his mattress. "I hope I can get better and get out of here before I croak. I don't want to die in no hospital." He said with a bit of lightness in his voice.

Kagome smoothed the sheet with her hand as she chewed her lip nervously. Her grandfather caught it and arched a brow at her rosy face. "What's gotten you all a flutter, girl?" He rasped quietly.

Kaede grinned a little and inhaled deeply. "She has had a busy few days. She and InuYasha have been working on the house and trying to fix a few things." She said contently. "I don't know what I would do withou either of you. And, frankly, I don't know what I would do without you, Kagome." The woman garbled, finding her eyes growing heavy.

The girl felt her heart convulse. Her mind was wandering in places she didn't dare go.

"Oh?" The old man chided, trying his best to not let the sedatives overcome him. "She met the old boy?"

"Yes, Jiji. He's been really good to me." Kagome smiled warmly, letting her eyes fall on the pattern of the sheet stitching. "He's here. He just went downstairs."

"That's good. I'd like to see him. I have something for him, anyway." He said, drifting off into a subversive space in his mind.

Kaede let out a sigh as she adjusted on her bed. Her eyes fell on Kagome as she leaned down to give the man a kiss on the cheek. "I love you, Jiji." The girl murmured, finding herself more upset than when she had first arrived.

As Totosai fell asleep, becoming apart of the world he had been consumed in for days, Kaede let go of his hand and caught Kagome's attention. There was something about the way that she looked at her...

It was different. The girl brushed her hair from her eyes as she brought her focus to her grandmother. The admission wasn't judgemental, but more so brutally honest than she wanted.

"I know that you've already become attached to that boy." Kaede said, rearranging her pillows to support her aching back. "You can deny it, or sing your sad story of why you can't care, but I know that I haven't seen you so lost, and I don't think it's because of what happened to you."

Kagome lowered her head, finding solace in her recoil. "Please, Baba, I don't want to talk about him anymore. It's just a crush and nothing else." She said, recalling how he vowed his words to be true. He didn't love her, she was infantile in comparision.

Kaede rolled her eyes and began to lay down when the moniter began blaring a singular, sinister note. Kagome and Kaede's heads snapped to attention, wide awake in fear. Moments later, as they scurried to Totosai's bed, InuYasha walked in only to be tramped by the hospital staff.

"_Crash cart!"_ Screamed a doctor, as his hands pressed into the old man's chest. InuYasha chucked his soda on the floor and instinctively grabbed Kagome.

Kaede was holding her husband's hands. A blur of sound billowed past their ears, bleding the cries into the silence that remained captured in the halls.


	16. The Sunlight on Her Skin

**AN:**

**Thank you to my darling reviewers and readers.**

**Sorry this chapter is a bit short, I had a few things come up and it kind of threw off my updating schedule. I'll be updating the next chapter either tonight or in the morning. **

**Happy reading!**

**love Jiru.**

The Sunlight on Her Skin

Silence commanded the partition, strangling out the violence unfurling in front of their eyes. Romanticizing the cautionary moments, begging for some sort of eased exit from the room, InuYasha shoved Kagome's frantic body into the hall.

She trembled, screaming at no one in particular. InuYasha gripped to her shoulders, looking at her sternly as she tried to absolve the quake of her nerves. He felt the thobbing of her heart through his fingers and closed his eyes, formulating the appropriate thing to say.

Kaede was held by a nurse, inside. She had refused to leave, but ripping Kagome from the scene thrust her into a foreign, white world; smelling of bleach and glimmering gray tiles.

The pressure in the hall sank on her, binding her feet to the floor as though she had been nailed in place. InuYasha was certain that she was about to break. Thing unseen had made him stay, and for once, he was thankful to put up with this barrage of emotion that consumed the both of them.

He resolved to holding it in, whereas the girl erupted with a fortuitous cleanse. She needed to release it and seeing anyone in this condition was heart breaking. Kaede was probably fairing about the same, only her comfort was lying in the hands of strangers and the professionals that were provided.

Every jarring cry of the difribrillator made Kagome's hair stand on end. She looked wounded, feral like a beaten animal. The man leaned her back against the wall, knocking a painting to the side. His forehead pressed against hers, allowing her to ease into him.

Tears dolloped his nose and made his heart ache for her. He didn't know why he gravitated to her the way he did, or in the manners. It was blind movement that, even in this dire situation, he couldn't escape from.

He wanted so badly to say something, anything, to her. Instead, he soothed her with a chaste kiss, swallowing her in his arms. InuYasha had fallen so far, and owed these people his life. What else was he supposed to do? He'd be damned if he left now.

Shippo sprang into his mind, as he often did. He wanted to see him, wanted him to have his life return to normal. What would he do when he found out if Old Totosai had passed? There would be another life that had been stolen from him.

A glower spilled across the canvas of his face, painting him with discontent. When the sound of the door opening jerked his attention away from his swarming thoughts, he immediately tightened his grip on the girl.

Kaede sobbed like a child, holding onto the very last shred of her being. As she appeared in the doorway, she held a Kleenex to her nose, cleaning up the crooks around her mouth. Kagome's breath hitched in her throat, peering over InuYasha's shoulder to see her grandmother placing a stern expression on her face.

The door shut behind her and she leaned against it, clutching her test, heaving a heavy breath. InuYasha's dark eyes inspected her, wishing for her to speak of something - the weather, the smell in the hall, or the fact that she knew something they didn't.

Respectably, InuYasha extended a hand for to take. When she didn't he furrowed his brows, allowing the silence to cease. "Kaede-baba, are you alright?"

Kagome gripped to InuYasha's sides, digging her nails into the fabric of his shirt, bracing for what may come. He rested his chin upon her head, watching Kaede shake her head softly. Her hands smoothed out her kimono and dabbed at her eyes.

"He's alright for now." She sniveled, "Please go get Shippo. If something happens to Papa, I won't be able to make it without someone to take care of." She stifled, trying to hold back the emotion eating at her very essence. "I need him to be here."

InuYasha went slack with relief. The girl attached to him, didn't. Instead, Kagome buried her face into his chest, smothering herself with his sturdiness. "I'll leave in the morning. I'll have to beat Sango's number out of Rin." He sighed.

Kagome felt a twinge of jealously shoot through her, but relented to keeping it to herself. Kaede shuffled towards them, placing a prickly hand on the girl's back. "I think it would be good for you to get some fresh air. I don't want you to remember home like this."

Kaede looked knowingly at InuYasha and reached into the breast of her kimono, pulling out a ring with a singular key attached to it. "This is something that no one can change. He's my husband and I don't want anyone else to see him like this. Take this and go to the house, and under our bed is everything you'll need." She said weakly.

Kagome pulled back for a moment, startled. "Bachan, why are you letting me go?" She asked, dewy eyed and obviously concerned. Her eyes questioned the absolution in the old woman's face, before succumbing to the calm that washed over her.

"You need to listen, my girl." The old woman said. "If you were in love, and you knew that the end of your journey together was ending, wouldn't you do everything to take every second as a gift?"

InuYasha looked away, recalling how he hadn't with Kikyo. He had appreciated her, and loved her with every shred of his being. When she passed, he'd been there, but not as he should have been. Kaede was stronger than he was and he acknowledged his own defeat in semblace to hers.

Kagome didn't understand what it was like to lose the other half of yourself. She understood death more than she should, but Bankotsu was not in love with her. She didn't love him like they had loved and lived like they lived.

Her world was designed in flaw and reconstruction, which would take a life time of recovery to sustain. InuYasha let his hand slide down the girl's arm, gripping her clammy hand for reassurance. He had tried to get away from her, but as it were, he would protect her from whatever may harm her.

"I'll take care of her like I took care of you and Old Totosai." InuYasha smiled sadly, brushing his fingers across Kagome's. The gesture confused her, but she accepted it kindly and ignored the powerful surge of emotion cutting at her heart.

"How long do you think you'll be gone, dear?" Kaede asked, letting her eyes roll over the pair in front of her. She knew that this would lead them somewhere they didn't know they need go. Everything ends, but it has to have a beginning.

InuYasha nodded as he rolled it over his head. "Just a couple of days, I think. I don't think it would be too long. I think I'm going to go get some coffee." He released Kagome, leaving her yearning for his warmth. "Anyone else want any?"

Kaede shook her head and pressed on the best smile she could. "I'm going to just drink my juice and try to get some rest. I need to be here as much as I can."

Kagome gave her grandmother a hug, closing her sore eyes as she relaxed. She was blank, almost overwhelmed by the events that had transpired when she had returned. Guilt ate at her for wanting to leave and to follow InuYasha, but her grandmother knew as soon as she saw the girl.

Kagome didn't need anymore sadness. Her love was never questioned, her heart never lied. It was evident in her eyes and the way she conditioned herself to remain quiet and collected. "I love you, Bachan. Tell Jiji I love him." She smiled crookedly, not letting it affect the rest of her face.

She was swollen and rusty in comparision to how fried her mind was. InuYasha crossed his arms over his chest waiting for her to follow behind. "We won't be gone long, I promise." He said, "I'll have everybody home as soon as I can."

"Well, you best be on your way girl. Destiny is calling." Kaede said to Kagome, placing a kiss upon her cheek. The young woman nodded and said her goodbyes and caught up to InuYasha as he bustled towards the elevator.

In Tokyo, Miroku slumped back against his swing. The cool air soothed the heat prickling at his skin and he sighed. Looking at his phone, he sighed and snuggled next to Sango. She was wrapped in a blanket, trying to make sense of everything that had happened. Her hand hurt like hell and was swollen like a grapefruit.

"Why would she have come after me?" She asked sullenly. "I don't know why she was so frantic. I wonder if something happened to make her so upset."

Miroku shrugged, biting at his lip. "You know, Sango, Ayame has been involved in somethings that she shouldn't have ever been involved in. It's mostly my fault for having a questionable client, after all. I feel like most of my life, my problems have been from bad choices that I've made." He looked at her pensively, trying to read the curiousity on her face.

"Miroku, we all make mistakes that we aren't proud of. Our choices shouldn't make us bad people, or make us feel that way. They do, they do so much, though. I regret helping Kohaku, every single day." Sango rasped against the cold.

"I know, my dear, I know." An arm wrapped around the girl, pulling her closer. "I'm just glad that you've made your way back to me. I didn't think that our time together would be spent talking to the paramedics and the police." He smirked dejectedly.

"You know I like danger." She glowered, "But, I suppose you want to talk about InuYasha."

Miroku stiffened, pulling himself beneath Sango's fuzzy, pink blanket. "I guess we need to, don't we?" He grinned. "I'm just glad that he's alive. How did he end up in Akita?"

Sango shrugged slightly, "He told me that his house and burned down and that after his wife had passed, he stayed with his friend - _you_ - and left. I guess he just wandered about the country until the old folks at the inn took him in. They're really bad about not letting people leave." She laughed slightly, "It was after my friend when missing that they started doing that."

"What was her name?" Miroku asked, holding the woman's good hand, swinging the bench slightly.

"Kagome." Sango said, "I just want to know if she's okay. Her father went all crazy after her mother died and someone kidnapped her. She's had so much happen to her. She never asked for any of it. It's not like she was a bad person, and deserved it."

Miroku furrowed his brows. "Kagome?" He asked, "Did she have pretty black hair and gray eyes? Those eyes are what stand out to me, when I hear that name. She always looked so afraid, but assured at the same time. It was really strange, but it could be a completely different person, I'm just rambling, I'm sorry." He said, turning to see the woman's face contort with an unpresendented emotion.

"You saw her? You know her?" Sango clenched her chest through the pain shooting through her hand. "How long ago?"

Her eyes were electric, searching with a profound sense of relief.

"I-I, god, it's been several months." Miroku said jogging his memory. "She was with one of my clients, Bankotsu. That's why you mentioned someone that fit his description, that I was looking through my phone. I normally hear from him but I havent heard from him in days."

Sango lowered her head, "There was a man shooting at InuYasha when he told me to leave. I took Shippo and ran and we ended up here." She shrugged. "So, this Bankotsu must have kidnapped her?" She asked, finding her head throbbing with a sheering ache.

Miroku shook his head, ruffling his hair. "I assume so. Bankotsu was upset with InuYasha for exposing the illegal activities that his father's company had set up. I mean, I would have questioned them, too. It's a morality issue more than anything. How do you think I feel representing people I know are guilty?"

Sango listened intently, finding the missing pieces to the puzzle.

"Eventually, Kikyo, his wife, passed away in the accident and shortly after his house burned down. They said it wasn't arson, but you never can tell around here. I mean, it's a shanty, you can't expect there to be much security." Miroku said as a matter of factly. "Besides, he'd always been a good man. An asshole, but a good man. He never seemed like he'd do anything to bother anyone."

"Why did Bankotsu want to hurt him?"

"Because of the money, I suppose." The man grimaced. "He was entitled to a lot of money from the company, but the man that owned his father's assests, a man named Naraku, is holding the funds because of some infringement in the clause."

"Why does involve InuYasha?" Sango furrowed her brows.

"Like I said, Sango, I have no real idea." Miroku looked at her with an earnest expression, wishing he knew what to tell her. "Ayame got involved with the finance department and things for Naraku and that caused Bankotsu to hire me and through a series of unfortunate events, I'm living alone here."

The woman let her eyes fall on her slippers and she brushed them against the porch. "I'd live with you if you'd have me." She said softly, raising her eyes to meet his. A smile tugged at the corner of his lips and he laid his head in the crook of her neck. "You know I'd have you in a heart beat. You were all I ever wanted."

Sango placed a kiss upon his forehead and sighed. "Maybe one day I can come back, when all of this is finished." She said, content that he still wanted her. Her thoughts tumbled like the waves in the distance and she relished in the static. "Why would Bankotsu have wanted Kagome?"

Miroku thought for a moment, trying to jar his memories. He shuddered at the sight of Bankotsu creeping into his head. "He seemed like he cared about her, not in love, but like he had wanted her for his own reasons. When he spoke to her, it was like he was a charming businessman. She was pale, very small, and didn't look like she as all there." He said, narrowing his eyes at the slats on the porch. "Ayame didn't like her, which later I found out that the man she was seeing was also the man that my wife had been having an affair with."

"Koga?" Sango blinked, finding the entire world crashing down on her. "Really? That's who she's with? This world has become so small, I could fit in it my hand."

"It really is. You'd think that all of these people could find people they didn't know to bother, right?" Miroku chided sarcastically. "But, I work indirectly for Naraku and all of his staff is terrified of him. I shouldn't even tell you about any of this, just for the sheer fear of being paranoid." He gestured with his hands, as if trying to grasp the thought. "He had a daughter, which, I assume would be why Bankotsu thought that Kagome would be leverage. Ayame told me about it, but he never said her name or anything."

Sango heaved a sigh into the blanket and rubbed her face. "I just want this day to be over and go to sleep. I can't understand all of this. It's like being caught in the middle of a crime drama. I never thought my life would be so hostile."

Miroku rubbed her shoulder with his thumb, "Well," He said smoothly, "Why don't you go back inside and I'll call Bankotsu and see if I can find out anything. I really hate having to do this, but I'm curious now." He smiled warmly at the woman, rubbing her eyes as she yawned.

"Alright. Will you be in soon?" She inspected his cherubic face and found the answer in the form of a gentle kiss.

When she returned, Miroku slid his finger across his phone, illuminating the screen. He skimmed through the numbers until he found the one he was looking for and held his breath as he pressed the call button.

As it rang, an illness climbed inside of him, making his stomach churn more violently than the sea. His hand cupped his forehead, pressing out the stress at the corners. Sango was probably eavesdropping, but it couldn't be helped.

The entire night wasn't getting much better for anyone. InuYasha was sitting on the edge of the balcony, letting his legs hang in between the slats as he smoked a cigarette. The steam from the coffee was wafting in the cold air, which nipped at his nose and frazzled his hair.

Kagome was wrapped in a hospital blanket, staring out at the sea. She looked lost until the sound of _that _phone, _his _phone rang from InuYasha's pocket. Biting her lip, she snapped her eyes to him, watching his curious face as he fingered through his pocket.

Squinting at the number, he looked back towards Kagome. "Should I answer it?" He rasped, not wanting to look her in the eye. He was embarassed for kissing her again, and it was adding fuel to the proverbial fire.

Kagome shook her head and plastered it against her knees. "What else can happen tonight?" She seethed, "Just answer the damn thing, I don't want to hear that sound anymore."

InuYasha flicked his cigarette and sucked in a tight breath. When he hit the button, he wasn't expecting to hear a long forgotten voice.


	17. Burning

**AN: I felt like it was time for this.**

**Thank you to my readers and reviewers. I'm going to be sending response messages and thank yous in the next chapter! This is short and sweet and I wanted to say thank you for sticking by me through all of this.**

**The balls gonna be rolling. Expect updates this week. **

**~love always**

**Jiru**

Streaks of lightning illuminated the skyline as InuYasha _joyously_ lead Kagome back to the inn. The hospital visit had completely drained the girl, leaving her as shallow as the puddles of melted snow.

Miroku, he had cried when the man answered the phone, showering him with the same emotion InuYasha had bestowed, in a more poised manner, to him. She had stared in bewilderment at the wily gleam in his eyes, as he smoked his cigarette, telling tales of what he had done and places he had been.

It was then that Kagome understood the blood, that vagabond spirit, that coursicated in his veins. He took the painful edges of the night and smoothed them down like whittlers carving away at wood. She could see _him_ when he spoke to that man. InuYasha was not burdened by his stony facade, but the piousness of a boy with their friends.

It was honest.

Yet, she knew of Miroku, knew of the things that he was connected to, but held her mouth shut for this fleeting moment of happiness InuYasha felt. Questions still lingered as they crept into the confines of their sleepy home. Kagome could barely wrap her head around the things closest to her heart, and there he was; smiling for her, telling her things that he would have normally hidden.

Her grandfather was becoming a ghost, and she was erasing lines that she had drawn so many years prior. Her world was becoming colorful amidst the darkness where she resided.

This foreign feeling captured her as she slid off her muddy shoes and packed up her belongings. She had fought for this place. Fought tooth and nail to return here, and to what result? Her heart was pulling her towards this frightening territory and blank pages she had to write. Yet, as she was sulking over the fact that InuYasha had a child, a life outside of her...

Grabbing her head in her hands, Kagome sucked back a tight breath and tried to calm herself. She wanted to cry and let her emotions devour her, but chose to suppress them. The sheen in her eyes called out to the light and sparkled in the low light of her room.

InuYasha was reluntantly waiting for her beside the door, watching her fight with herself. She was going to have to let go and accept what life she chose. A small, sad smile creased his lips as he watched her fumble with her minute collection of belongings into a duffle bag.

She looked so soft beneath the light, but he knew that she was rigid.

Clearing his throat, he saw her head shoot up in surprise. She swallowed and brushed a hand through her long hair and sat upright with her bag zipping as she moved. "I guess I'm done." She said, scanning over the musty room with a want that she couldn't suppress. "That's all there really is of me, after all."

InuYasha furrowed his brows and dropped on his haunches in front of her. Looking into her eyes, he saw the lingering questions and the uncertainty she'd tried to hide. He absently licked his lip and fell deeper into her fathoms. "Do you trust me now?" He asked.

Kagome flashed an audacious smile and recoiled. "That is honestly something that I can't understand, how can you ask me that?"

InuYasha brushed his ragged bangs from his eyes. "You don't want to let me go." He said poignantly, searching for the answer she would never utter.

Steadying herself with her palms on the floor, she leaned closer, eyes never leaving his. "How can I let you leave me? You've been some sort of fucking saint for sticking around this long. I'm a mess and I don't know why you say all of these horrible things to me; _I don't love you. I can't have feelings for you. I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't_..."

She paused to see his narrowing expression and clenching jaw.

"If you wanted to let me stay here and rot like the rest of my life, you would have been gone. You _can't_ leave me. You don't _want _to have feelings for someone as fucked up as me, because you're not any better. I'm watching my world plummet and I can't do it anymore. I want to live!" Kagome hissed, erupting violently as her hands trembled.

"What do you have to say for yourself? Huh?" She asked, quivering from the violence in her veins. "You know I can see through you. I can see through all of _this_..." She spat, gesturing with flailing arms, like she had when they first met. "You can sit and look at me like I'm crazy, or pity me because I've gone through something worse than you... But how dare you assume that I am defenseless."

Leaning back, her heaving chest was alive with tattered breaths. Everything she had held in and the urge to lash out and express the things that she had so willfully repressed...

They came flooding out of her mouth as the rain pelted the the inn with its howling voice and turbulence. Kagome felt the fire spark and there was no turning back. InuYasha could do as he pleased, but at least she was free of one burden.

Anything else that she had to think about was cast aside, only for that moment as she tried to read his calculating facade. He looked like he had been stabbed through the heart and was bleeding on the floor before her.

InuYasha brushed a hand through his salty hair and bit his lip as he devoured the words in his head. The formulation as complete and the answer was obvious to him. Kagome had finally reached within herself and threw away the essence of her youth and replaced it with something far more raw.

She was far from whole, but her admittance and vigor set his teeth on edge. He itched every time her voice lacerated the layers of safety he'd built. He wanted her. His resolve was blinded by that want and whether or not it was a good choice, to hell with it.

Jutting a hand outwards, he captured the back of her head, pulling her into him, violently kissing her. Kagome froze for a moment before she let her trembling hands wind into his hair. He fell ontop of her, dragging his knees across the floor.

He didn't want to think of her like this, or feel this strongly about her.

Yet, he did.

Every move grew more intense, spreading like untamed fever. Kagome was sweltering as she struggled to remove the barriers of clothing between them. She had to feel him, experience what it was like to be devoured by her emotions.

InuYasha victoriously tore his jacket and shirt over his head, barely missing the warmth of her mouth as he absorbed her sweetness. The floor cooled his palms as he hovered above her small frame, indulging in the quiet gasps when he rolled his lips across her jawline.

Her breasts pressed into his chest as he fought with the buttons on her jeans. She stared at him as he slid his own pants down, revealing himself to her. She flushed darker as he captured her mouth as he thrust into her, holding her weight with one arm.

Kagome felt hazy, disillusioned, as she arched into him, her hair crawling along the old wooden floor. InuYasha grunted into the crook of her neck as he thrust into her, feeling her walls clenching with each stroke.

He was blank, completely consumed by her. Kagome ran her fingers over his teeth, curling them over his lips until she dug them into his shoulders. She had yearned for this so many times and dreamed that he would give himself to her.

She had been timid, but as her legs coiled around him as he lifted her back against the bed, she could see he had wanted nothing more than this. Her heavy lashes couldn't keep her from imprinting this memory into the forefront of her mind.

They were erupting, just as the the rest of the world shut down.

Each breath, each frantic thrust, they all built up for that one final moment.

InuYasha wrapped his arms around her and cradled her as he jerked and fluttered against her body. Her heart was crying for him as he pulled out of her, tensing at his absence. Spilling himself on the floor, he gasped, panting her name into the quiet.

Kagome grabbed him as she caught her breath. Her body spasmed, not remembering a lover before him. If she never had him again, at least she had tasted him, loved him.

InuYasha fell upon the cold floor and soothed his burning skin, hazily watching Kagome's half-naked body slump against the bed. Instinctively, he grabbed her and pulled her into him. She listened to his uneven breathing and rapturous heart, beating out of time for her.

A calloused hand ran through her hair, staring vacantly at the rickety fan.

"I'm sorry." He swallowed, not having the courage to look at her flushed face.

Kagome sighed against him, wrapping her body around his. "You mean something to me. I don't know what, but I don't want to lose it." She said in a whisper.

He nodded against her hair and felt his body relax. "I don't either."

"Where do we go from here?" The woman asked, toying with a strand of his hair.

"We need to go to Tokyo. I know you didn't want to talk about it, and probably don't now." He responded tiredly, "We have people to see." Was all he said, pulling a sheet from the bed as he hid the woman from the draft.

Morning would take away the magic, as it always did. Places would be real and her heart would still be uncertain, but that's how the world works, isn't it?

Sweetness is few and far between.


End file.
